KHABAROVSK. Dec 7 (Interfax) - A court in Khabarovsk has sentenced a criminal group of two people involved in the activities of an international terrorist organization to eight to nine years in prison, the press service for the Russian Federal Security Service Directorate for the Khabarovsk Territory said.
"On November 16-17, 2020, the First Eastern District Military Court found the defendants guilty and sentenced them to eight to nine years behind bars, of which they will spend the first two years in prison and the rest of the years in a high-security penal colony," the report said.
The group comprised two men, citizens of Russia, residents of Komsomolsk-na-Amure and Kazan.
They were both radical Islamists and participated in financing the international terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir ash-Sham (banned in Russia).
In March 2020, the resident of Komsomolsk-na-Amure received a Schengen visa and bought a ticket to France, from where he intended to go to Syria to participate in terrorist activities at the instructions of a recruiter, who was on the territory of the European Union. He was detained in Komsomolsk-na-Amure.
His accomplice was detained in Tatarstan and was transferred to Khabarovsk "for investigative actions at the scene of the crime, namely, the financing of a terrorist organization."
Three criminal cases were opened against the resident of the Khabarovsk Territory based on the articles of the Russian Criminal Code dealing with attempted participation in the activities of an organization that is recognized as terrorist in accordance with the Russian legislation, abetting terrorism in the form of financing and abetting terrorism in the form of a financing by a group of people.
The resident of Kazan was charged with abetting terrorism in the form of financing.
The sentence handed down by the First Eastern District Military Court has now taken legal force.