Tatarstan's Supreme Court Upholds Sentence For Teacher Found With Banned Islamic Group's Books

KAZAN, Russia -- The Supreme Court of Russia's Republic of Tatarstan has rejected an appeal filed by Nakia Sharifullina, a noted teacher and founder of Islamic schools for girls, who was handed a suspended two-year sentence in August after being convicted of organizing the activities of a banned Islamic group.

Sharifullina's lawyer, Ruslan Nagiyev, told RFE/RL that the court handed down its decision on the appeal on December 17.

Sharifullina was charged in March 2020 after police found in her possession of several books by the founder of the Nurcular movement, Islamic scholar Said Nursi. She has rejected all of the charges, insisting that she did not use the books in her lessons.

The teacher was placed under house arrest for eight months at the time and later released on condition she would not leave the city.

Since 2013, several alleged members of Nurcular have been arrested across Russia.

Last month, a noted Islamic scholar in Tatarstan, Gabdrakhman Naumov, was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison after a court found him guilty of creating and running Nurcular's branch in the republic, which he and his supporters have denied.

Nurcular was founded in Turkey by Nursi, who died in 1960.

The Nurcular movement, which has millions of followers around the globe -- especially in Turkey -- has been banned in Russia since 2008.

Russian authorities have said the group promotes the creation of an Islamic state that encompasses all Turkic-speaking areas and countries in the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Russia's Turkic-speaking regions in the North Caucasus and Volga regions.