MOSCOW. Feb 3 (Interfax) - A Moscow court has sentenced the owner of the Ummah publishing house, Aslambek Ezhayev, to imprisonment for 17 years for organizing the financing of the Islamic State terrorist organization, banned in Russia, the Russian Investigative Committee wrote on its Telegram channel on Friday.
"The court sentenced Ezhayev to 17 years of imprisonment," the Telegram channel said.
Ezhayev was found guilty of financing terrorist activities, it said.
Investigators and the court established that no later than 2012, Ezhayev, "who is an adherent of radical Islam ideas, organized financing for the terrorist activities of the Islamic State international terrorist organization."
"Since 2012, Ezhayev repeatedly hosted secret meetings with his business partners, who gave him money intended to fund Islamic State. Subsequently, he transferred more than 34 million rubles to individuals declared wanted in Russia for committing terrorism-related crimes," the Russian Investigative Committee said.
Additionally, "Ezhayev is the founder and owner of the Ummah publishing house which he also used to collect and transfer money," it said.
"Books released by this publishing house were designated as extremist based on experts' conclusions, but the man formally changed the titles of these books and published them once again. These books were also distributed among inmates in penitentiaries," the Investigative Committee said.
Investigators seized Ezhayev's "bank cards used to finance terrorism, technical means of sharing information, banned literature, and other paraphernalia of an extremist nature," it said.
As reported, Ezhayev was detained and arrested in April 2021.