MOSCOW. Aug 2 (Interfax) - Liberal Democratic Duma deputy Alexander Starovoitov will send a query to the Prosecutor General's Office and Interior Ministry in the next few days about the reported participation of members of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir in a rally in Kazan.
"Rallies have taken place in Tatarstan. An organization that is banned in the territory of the Russian Federation took part in one of them. At the present moment I do not know if law enforcers had tried to stop the actions of the organization that in fact absolutely openly unfurled its flags," he said to Interfax.
The deputy wants to know why the Interior Ministry and Prosecutor's Office of Tatarstan did nothing. "In this context I want to file a motion to the Prosecutor General's Office and Interior Minister Kolokoltsev for explanations on the matter - what steps were taken, when the organization was discovered. The query will be complied tomorrow or the day after and sent," he said.
Earlier Islamic affairs expert and eyewitness Rais Suleimanov told Interfax that the Sunday protest against the detention of numerous suspects in the attack on the Tatarstan mufti and the murder of the training division head of Tatarstan's Islamic Department was held in Kazan under the flags of the Hizb ut-Tahrir extremist religious organization outlawed in Russia.
About 100 people took part in the protest near the Kamal Tatarstan State Theater organized by the Azatlyk Union of Tatarstan Youngsters and the Al-Ihlas mosque administration and believers.
The Muslim Board of Tatarstan told Interfax that a two-year suspended sentence was passed on Al-Ihlas imam Rustem Safin in 2009 for organizing Hizb ut-Tahrir activity.
That was the first time Hizb ut-Tahrir members had taken part in a public protest, Suleimanov said.