UFA, Bashkortostan -- A journalist in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan has been arrested on charges of writing extremist religious statements, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports.
Airat Dilmukhametov, who works for the newspaper "Local Governing" and is editor in chief of the privately owned weekly "Maidan" (Front), was arrested last week.
He is also the leader of the nongovernmental organization The Nation of Islam.
His lawyer, Almira Zhukova, told RFE/RL that Dilmukhametov has been under house arrest since March 31 when the prosecutor-general found his article in a January issue of "Maidan" to be extremist.
He was placed in preliminary detention in Ufa on April 23.
Zhukova says her client has faced similar charges in the past and might face long-term imprisonment if found guilty.