The CIS Anti-Terrorism Center Has Data on 8k CIS Residents Wanted for Terrorism

According to the head of the CIS Anti-Terrorism Center, it has a data base containing the information about 8,000 CIS residents wanted for terrorist activity.

KRASNODAR (Sputnik) – The Anti-Terrorism Center of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS ATC) has a data base containing the information about 8,000 CIS residents wanted for terrorist activity as well as 2,000 photos of them, Col. Gen. of Police Andrey Novikov, the CIS ATC head, told Sputnik.

"The CIS ATC constantly has an updated list of wanted citizens. At the moment, we have the information on over 8,000 people, who were declared wanted for crimes of a terrorist or extremist nature. Moreover, we have created a photo-bank containing more than 2,000 pictures of those wanted," Novikov said.

The CIS ATC head explained that this roster was formed on the basis of an agreed-to list of articles of the national criminal codes providing responsibility for crimes of a terrorist nature, as well as a separate list of articles on the participation in hostilities as part of illegal armed groups and international terrorist organizations on the territory of third countries.

According to Novikov, as a result of the operation dubbed Barrier, the CIS ATC in cooperation with CIS intelligence services has identified 73 persons involved in the financing of terrorism in 2017. The center has also identified 17 people wanted for terrorism in 2017, who have already been jailed for other criminal offenses.

In 2016-2017, the center has managed to identify possible locations of over 500 people wanted by CIS law enforcement agencies for terrorism-related offenses, Novikov added.

The ATC is a permanent specialized institution of the CIS, established in June 2000. The center coordinates the activity of the CIS authorities in the sphere of combating international terrorism and other acts of extremism.