Lost imam’s case: charity with fatal outcome?
While special services follow the financial track, psychics and cheats try to ‘help’ Suleyman Zaripov’s relatives
'If you want to know where your father is, send money to this QIWI Wallet'. Such SMS flood the family of the disappeared imam Suleyman Zaripov from Kazan. Published in social networks on 21 February, the promise of reward equal to 1m rubles for information about Hazrat Suleyman and his foreign fellow-traveller attracted those who wish to cash in on people's grief. However, the workers of the Investigative Committee of Russia and the Federal Security Service are inclined to think that money played a major role for the criminals implicated in the disappearance of the imam. Against of this background a fear that death squad came to Volga Region is soaring in the Russian ummah.
Sheikh and money
As sources of Realnoe Vremya inform, the key version of the investigation on Hazrat Suleyman Zaripov's case can be financial. Not sweeping away other presuppositions of what could happen to the imam and Sheikh Nadzhmeddin on 7 February en route from Mordovia to Kazan, the investigators and operatives decided to find out thoroughly why a Syrian-born citizen of the UAE, a representative of the Arab charity foundation Dar al Ber Society came to Russia.
As Realnoe Vremya, the foundation was founded the Ministry of Labour of Arab Emirates with the intention of accumulation of the obligatory alms-giving in Islam – zakat. Dar al Ber is represented in 42 countries and helps the needy strengthening the Muslim fraternity. A 62-year-old Khouja Abde Najim Eldin – Sheikh Nadzhmeddin – has been visiting Russia since 1991. In the Muslim community, he is known as an overseer of construction of mosques. 26 Muslim temples were erected only in Tyumen Oblast due to his participation obviously together with the Arab foundation.
How many mosques could Sheikh Nadzhmeddin build in Tatarstan and Kazan? None of the representatives of the Muslim Spirituality Directorate of Tatarstan has answered to this question to journalists for these more than three weeks of the hunt. We can only hope that the Muslim scholars were franker with the investigators. The very lost imam and his relative – ex-mufti of Tatarstan – are supposed to be the people who had more information about the collaboration with Saudi Arabia and Arab countries of Near East. His relative Gusman Iskhakov informed Realnoe Vremya after the disappearance of Suleyman Zaripov that he was abroad and would give an interview soon, without doubt. Now he doesn't pick up his phone.
At the same time, as it is said in the message of the Investigative Administration of the Investigative Committee of Russia in the Republic of Tatarstan received on 4 February, 'the implication of the wanted people to the process of distribution of large financial resources that come from abroad for construction of mosques' is also considered to be one of the versions.
'The worst thing is that if death squads reached Volga Region'
Irek Bikkinin, a famous Islamic journalist from Mordovia, is not surprised by the unwillingness of the Muslim leaders to speak about Arab benefactors. 'The Federal Security Service prohibited accepting any foreign help 5-6 years ago. If money were brought earlier, which was sent to the account of a muftiate or mosque, a foundation of support of Islamic culture would be organized in Russia, which would accumulate the financial help from other countries and transfer it to those muftiates it likes,' Bikkinin explains. According to him, the tracks of the lost priestesses are still looked for in Mordovia, and the Muslims of the region are worried about what happened:
Irek Bikkinin: 'We, Muslims, are very afraid of the practice of North Caucasus and the death squad. Employees of these squads abduct people, including imams. According to my data, it is happening now in Crimea. If it reached Volga Regions, it strikes terror.'
'If ordinary criminals have something to do with it here is one topic. But we, Muslims, are very afraid of the practice of North Caucasus and the death squad. Employees of these squads abduct people, including imams. According to my data, it is happening now in Crimea. If it reached Volga Regions, it strikes terror. It indicates that the country is being destroyed…'
As Bikkinin says, pseudo siloviks don't care what Muslim you are and what ideas you have. 'The most important thing is whether it is possible to make money on you. If an hysteric atmosphere is created here, the best people will be kidnapped – there will be people who decide that it is allowed to do it for others too…'
'Those who have 'the fifth eye' or 'the sixth ear' call us'
The relatives of Suleyman Zaripov tell that they don't receive any information about the course of the investigation quickly any more. They had to request via lawyers and get an answer: 'Classified information'. But the big family of the father of six children and the grandfather of eleven grandchildren are on the go.
'We gather any information. We still watch the videos, mark everything we find suspicious and send it to the siloviks,' says Gumar Ganiev, the son-in-law of the lost imam. 'Personally, I think that there was not much money to organize any attack. Hazrat Suleyman did not have anything with him, for sure. As for his fellow, I'm not sure.'
Do people call you? Was any effect of the ad about the reward?
About a hundred people called. The ads are placed in many places, they are on the Internet. There were some messages from clairvoyants that they were near a lake, one village has something that would help us in searching. We did not go to these places. Although we don't check absolutely inadequate information. Different psychos call – those who have 'the fifth eye', 'the sixth ear', 'had a vision in a dream'… It seems they don't need money…
Were these messages useful?
There was no concrete information. Cheats also send messages: 'If you want to know where you father is, send 50,000 rubles to this QIWI Wallet…'
Sources of Realnoe Vremya inform that there was a call to transfer 500,000 rubles. Nevertheless, this information was disproved by the son-in-law of the imam, the head of the group of hunt for Zaripov in Kazan, the imam-mukhtasib of Kazan Hazrat Mansur Dzhalyaletdinov: 'No one called and asked for 500,000 rubles for the information'.
The investigative group comprises a number of the investigators of the first major case department, investigators-criminalists from the criminalist department, investigators of Buinsk Municipal Interregional Investigative Department. Moreover, the operatives of the Criminal Investigations Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tatarstan, the Department for Countering Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tatarstan, the Federal Security Service Directorate of Russia in Tatarstan and the police office in Buinsk District of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tatarstan take part in the investigation of the criminal case.