UFA -- Three men have been convicted in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan of religious extremism, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports.
A city court in the southern city of Baymak found Aynur Sagadeyev, 26, Aleksei Putintsev, 32, and Aynur Baysuakov, 29, guilty of extreme religious activities for the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, which supports the establishment of an Islamic caliphate.
The leader of the group, Sagadeyev, was sentenced to one year in prison, while the other two received suspended sentences.
The number of people convicted of religious extremism in Bashkortostan has increased in recent years, but Sagadeyev is the first person to be sent to jail on such charges.