Police in Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan have searched the home and office of noted independent journalist Iskander Siradzhi in connection with a probe launched against RFE/RL correspondent Alsu Kurmasheva, who has been in detention center in Tatarstan's capital, Kazan, since October 18.
Siradzhi said in a video statement on Instagram that police told him he is suspected of being linked to "a crime" that Kurmasheva is suspected of.
SEE ALSO: Husband Of RFE/RL Journalist Detained In Russia Says Wife Is A 'Political Prisoner'They spoke as if Kurmasheva “collected some information that is a state secret, as if Kurmasheva asked a professor about a number of people mobilized from his institute [to the war in Ukraine]," he said, adding that they spoke “as if it is a big crime. And as if I am somehow connected to that crime."
Siradzhi said that law enforcement officers came to his home at 5.30 a.m. local time on November 16 and confiscated his and his wife's telephones, as well their children’s computers.
Kurmasheva, a dual citizen of Russia and the United States who has worked for RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir service for some 25 years, left Prague in mid-May to attend to a family emergency in her native Tatarstan, one of more than 20 Russian republics.
She was temporarily detained while waiting for her return flight on June 2 at the Kazan airport, where both of her passports and phone were confiscated.
After five months waiting for a decision, Kurmasheva was fined 10,000 rubles ($111) for failing to register her U.S. passport with Russian authorities.
While waiting for the return of her passports, Kurmasheva was detained again on October 18 and this time charged with failing to register as a foreign agent, a legal designation Russia has used since 2012 to label and punish critics of government policies. It has also been increasingly used to shut down civil society and media groups in Russia since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Since her arrest, Kurmasheva has had no contact with her family.
RFE/RL acting President Jeffrey Gedmin has rejected the charges against Kurmasheva saying she is being persecuted for her professional work.
Amnesty International, the UN Human Rights Office, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the chairman of the U.S. House of Representative's Foreign Affairs Committee have called for the immediate release of Kurmasheva.
RFE/RL's jailed journalists (left to right): Alsu Kurmasheva, Ihar Losik, Andrey Kuznechyk, and Vladyslav Yesypenko
Kurmasheva is one of four RFE/RL journalists -- Andrey Kuznechyk, Ihar Losik, and Vladyslav Yesypenko are the other three -- currently imprisoned on charges related to their work. Rights groups and RFE/RL have called repeatedly for the release of all four, saying they have been wrongly detained.
Losik is a blogger and contributor for RFE/RL’s Belarus Service who was convicted in December 2021 on several charges including the “organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order” and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Kuznechyk, a web editor for RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, was sentenced in June 2022 to six years in prison following a trial that lasted no more than a few hours. He was convicted of “creating or participating in an extremist organization.”
Yesypenko, a dual Ukrainian-Russian citizen who contributed to Crimea.Realities, a regional news outlet of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, was sentenced in February 2022 to six years in prison by a Russian judge in occupied Crimea after a closed-door trial. He was convicted of “possession and transport of explosives,” a charge he steadfastly denies.