Ruslan Iusupov
- Criminal Code
- Article 205.2 part 1, Russian Criminal Code
- Case category
- Terrorism cases
- Verdict
- Imprisonment (general regime)
- Sentence
- 3 years
- Date of verdict
- 2025-07-01
- Region
- Moscow
- City
- Moscow
Case summary
Resident of Moscow, originally from Chechnya. In September 2024 he was imprisoned in a case on justification of terrorism.
He was initially accused of reposting a video of the Taliban on VKontakte. Then he was also accused of posting a shahada in Arabic on his car window (shahada is the first of the five pillars of Islam, uniting two of its main provisions: confession of monotheism and recognition of Muhammad's prophetic mission). The investigation interpreted the Islamic symbol as an inscription associated with the terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda. According to the defence counsel, the Ministry of Justice experts decided that it was the shahada on a black background that justified terrorism, because Al-Qaeda uses it in this form as its symbol.
After the Taliban was removed from the list of terrorist organisations, the first charge was dropped and only the shahada episode remained in the case.
On 1 July 2025, Yusupov was sentenced to three years in a general regime penal colony.
Others charged under Article 205.2 part 1, Russian Criminal Code
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Source: this person’s record in the OVD-Info political persecution database
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