Court arrests Sagid Murtazaliev in absentia

Sagid Murtazaliev, the head of the Dagestani branch of the Russian Pension Fund, has been put on the international wanted list. The court has ruled in absentia to place him in custody, the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) reports.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 28 investigators promised to declare Murtazaliev wanted, since he is accused, together with Andrei Vinogradov, the head of the Kizlyar District of Dagestan, who was detained on July 27, of committing several crimes.

Murtazaliev is accused of promoting terrorist activities through the use of his official position (financing terrorism), organization of an attempt on the life of the deputy head of the centre to combat extremism under the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Dagestan and organizing the attempted murder of the deputy head of the administration of Kizlyar, says the website of the ICRF.

Another figurant in the case is Omar Asadulaev, who is hiding, like Murtazaliev, outside the Russian Federation, and who was also put on the international wanted list.

In the opinion of Denis Sokolov, a senior researcher at the Russian Academy of National Economy and State Service, the absence for so long time of the decision to put Murtazaliev on the federal wanted list "is a standard procedure of protracting political trials."

The fact that Murtazaliev was not declared wanted immediately may related to the interference in the issue of Ramzan Kadyrov and Rizvan Kurbanov, a Russian State Duma MP, believes Magomed Magomedov, a special correspondent of the Dagestan newspaper "Chernovik".

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.