UFA. Jan 15 (Interfax) - The Ordzhonikidzevsky District Court of Ufa has arrested four members of banned organization Bashkort for two months, an informed source told Interfax on Friday.
They "have been arrested for two months based on Article 213 [hooliganism] and Article 222 [illegal storage of weapons]," the source said.
The four people were detained recently, and a homemade pistol, two sawed-off shotguns, and a container of gunpowder were seized from them, the source said.
The unified press service for Bashkortostan's courts has confirmed this information to Interfax.
"The Ordzhonikidzevsky District Court of Ufa [...] has taken the suspects, members of the extremist organization Bashkort, Kinisarov, Amanov, Abkadirov, and Sharafutdinov, into custody for two months, i.e., until March 13, 2021," the press service said.
A criminal case against the suspects was opened on November 23, 2020, based on Part 1 of Article 30 and Part 2 of Article 213 of the Russian Criminal Code, it said.
Another informed source told Interfax on Wednesday of the detention of 14 members of the Bashkort organization, which has been recognized as extremist, who were involved in a conflict with the Armenian diaspora in the village of Karmaskaly in November.
On November 7, 2020, according to various sources, between 37 and 50 people were detained in Karmaskaly, allegedly planning provocations in relation to the local Armenian community. According to the local authorities, more than 70 people traveled to the district in an organized manner, including members of banned non-governmental organization Bashkort. The court sentenced 19 detainees to administrative arrest for terms of one to 15 days for disobeying police officers.
The Bashkort NGO, which was founded in 2014 and has 18 branches in Bashkir cities and regions, was banned by the Bashkir Supreme Court in May 2020. Independent experts came to the conclusion that the slogans of the members of the organization were aimed "at shaping public opinion on the infringement of the rights of persons of Bashkir ethnicity by state authorities and local self-government bodies and called for the withdrawal of the Republic of Bashkortostan from the Russian Federation and for violating the rights, freedoms, and legitimate interests of persons of non-Bashkir ethnicity."