Russia Jails Members Of Banned Islamic Group

A court in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, has jailed a member of a banned Islamic group.

The Leningrad Regional Military Court found Russian citizen Gapur Magomedov guilty of participation in the activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir organization on August 17 and sentenced him to five years in jail.

The same court sentenced a Kyrgyz citizen, Makhamadimin Saliev, to five years in jail on the same charges on August 14.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a London-based Sunni organization that seeks to unite all Muslim countries into an Islamic caliphate.

Hizb ut-Tahrir says it is peaceful, but Russia's Supreme Court banned it in 2003, branding it a terrorist organization.

The organization has also been banned in at least four former Soviet republics in Central Asia.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax