MOSCOW. Aug 2 (Interfax) - Second western district military court has sentenced a woman from Moscow to three years of imprisonment for trying to persuade people to join banned terrorist organizations and travel to Syria.
"The court found [Anisa] Arabiyeva guilty of the crime as per part 1 Article 205.1 of the Criminal Code (aiding terrorism) and sentenced her to three years of imprisonment," the court's press service told Interfax on Friday.
According to the human rights center Memorial (designated a foreign agent in Russia), in 2015 Arabiyeva recruited an "indefinite circle of persons" for the proscribed terrorist organizations Islamic State (ISIS) ad Jabhat al-Nusra and persuaded them to relocate to Syria.
According to the inquiry, she persuaded Zulikhan Magomadova, a Chechen woman who lived in Surgut, to move to Syria. However, her departure in June 2015 was foiled by officers from the counter-extremism center of the Interior Ministry.
Five years later, in November 2020, law enforcement authorities launched a criminal inquiry into Arabiyeva, and she was arrested. During the woman's trial Magomadova appeared as a witness for the prosecution.
The Memorial said that Arabiyeva maintained her innocence and insisted that they had discussed religious topics but denied encouraging people to leave for Syria or join terrorists.