Moscow’s garrison military court placed former Karelia mufti Wisam Ali Bardwil in pretrial detention, according to the court database. The Telegram channel Nezygar first drew attention to the entry.
The case file says the detention order was issued on June 19. No official announcement has been made about a criminal case against Bardwil. At the same time, because the measure was imposed by a garrison military court and Bardwil is not a serviceman, it can be inferred that the investigation concerns one of Russia’s terrorism-related articles.
Before that, Bardwil had been subjected to three administrative arrests. On May 15, he was jailed for 15 days on allegations of disobeying police at Sheremetyevo Airport. He was later given another 15 days after a second report was filed against him, this time for petty hooliganism. On June 16, the former mufti was again sentenced to 15 days under the same article.
In mid-May, pro-government Telegram channels, including Pervy Destruktologichesky, reported what they described as “mass arrests” of muftis in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Saransk, and Saratov. In Mordovia, the head of the republic’s Spiritual Administration of Muslims, Rail-khazrat Asainov, was detained in a bribery case, though he was later released.
According to Kommersant, in early May a court placed former head of the Northwestern Muslim Community Mohammed Henni, Saratov region deputy mufti El Hih Nidal Avadalla Ahmed, Ingush theologian Akhmed Tangiev, and five others in pretrial detention. The newspaper said they were accused of participating in a terrorist organization: investigators allege they were members of the Egyptian movement the Muslim Brotherhood and attended its meetings in St. Petersburg.
Investigators reportedly identified meetings of the council and executive committee of the Forum of Muslim Organizations, held in April 2025 on Vasilyevsky Island, as part of those gatherings. Pervy Destruktologichesky also claimed that Bardwil’s case is connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. For its part, the Spiritual Administration of Muslims described publications linking the organization to extremism, radicalism, foreign influence, and interethnic hostility as a campaign aimed at discrediting the traditional religious institution of Russia’s Muslims.