Kabarda–Balkaria

A court in Kabarda–Balkaria has sentenced 10 people from Tyrnyauz accused of creating and participating in a ‘Sharia patrol’, harassing people who did not comply with Islamic teachings.

The 10 suspects were sentenced on charges of creating and participating in an extremist group by the Elbrus District Court on 7 August. The court’s press service only announced the verdict on Tuesday.

The group’s organiser was sentenced to seven and a half years in a maximum-security prison, while the other nine defendants received prison terms ranging from three and a half to four and a half years.

According to investigators, this ‘Sharia patrol’ operated in Tyrnyauz for seven years and monitored the behaviour of local residents, attempting to force them to comply with rules corresponding to the group’s religious beliefs. Law enforcement officials said the ‘activists’ intimidated people whose lifestyles contradicted their beliefs and beat some of them with sticks.

In December 2017, they organised a ‘Sharia court’ against a local resident who had taken out a loan from a bank, ‘which contradicted their religious beliefs’. During the ‘trial’, the victim was struck with a stick 50 times.

Sixteen people were recognised as victims in the case. According to investigators, the group members independently held ‘hearings’ involving people they suspected of, among other things, consuming alcohol or using drugs.

The Interior Ministry reported the arrest of the 10 suspects in July 2024. They were aged between 26 and 54.

Investigators identified Tyrnyauz resident Askhat Chechenov as the organiser of the group. In addition to charges of creating an extremist group and participating in its activities, he and another defendant were charged with publicly calling for extremist activity. In June 2025, the criminal case against the 10 people from Tyrnyauz was sent to court.

The verdict against members of the Tyrnyauz group is the second major case involving ‘Sharia patrols’ in Kabarda–Balkaria in recent months.

On 9 June, a district court in Cherek sentenced 17 people from the republic in a case involving the creation of an extremist group and participation in its activities. Investigators also linked them to the activities of a ‘Sharia patrol’. The organiser was sentenced to four years and three months in prison, while the other defendants received sentences of two or more years.

In addition, in 2022, a court in the republic heard a case involving members of a similar group from the village of Anzorei. The indictment listed five incidents — two involving assault and three involving threats. In one of the incidents, a young woman and her boyfriend were allegedly threatened with being beaten with sticks because of rips in the woman’s jeans and because they had been out together late at night. The defendants received suspended sentences.