Dagestan's Supreme Court receives case against Wahhabi leader

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office in the North Caucasus finished investigating the criminal case filed against Magomed Tagayev, one of the main ideologists responsible for shaping and developing Wahhabism in Dagestan (a republic neighboring on Chechnya), acting head of the office, Nikolai Khashchikov, told RIA Novosti.

According to him, the criminal case against Mr. Tagayev was submitted to the Supreme Court of Dagestan for consideration.

Mr. Tagayev is charged with an armed rebellion, the organization of an illegal armed formation, rousing ethnic, racial or religious enmity, illegally acquiring, storing and carrying arms, ammunition and explosives, and other crimes.

"Tagayev's books, which are aimed at rousing interethnic and interfaith hatred and animosity, and humiliating man's dignity, were distributed in Dagestan and the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria," Mr. Khashchikov noted. "They increased tension and instability in this region of Russia, and provoked young people, brainwashed by Wahhabist propaganda, to take unlawful actions.

"Tagayev showed his true face in August 1999 when he, together with Basayev and Khatabomi [Chechen terrorist leaders and the latter was a mercenary from Jordan who was killed last year], not only called for changing the constitutional political system by force and for establishing an Islamic republic in Dagestan but also took an active part in combat operations against the federal forces in the mountainous regions of Dagestan."