ROSTOV-ON-DON. May 24 (Interfax) - The Southern District Military Court has sentenced a Sevastopol resident to 18 years in prison for organizing activities of a cell of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir al-Islami terrorist organization banned in Russia, the press service for the Crimea and Sevastopol branch of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said.
Investigators have determined that the defendant organized a Hizb-ut-Tahrir cell in Sevastopol in 2015, the FSB department for Crimea and Sevastopol said.
"He was determining the goals and objectives of this cell, organizing and conducting conspiratorial meetings of its members for the purpose of studying the ideology of said terrorist organization, and promoted propaganda among the population," it said.
According to the FSB, the defendant was involved in conspiracy, conducting covert anti-constitutional activities in an attempt to create favorable conditions for a violent seizure of power and forced change of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation.
Crimea and Sevastopol FSB officers stopped the Sevastopol resident's illegal activities on February 9, 2022. A criminal case was opened on counts of organizing activities of a terrorist organization and preparing for a violent seizure of power, the agency said.
The convict will spend the first four years of his term in a detention center and the remaining 14 years in a high security penitentiary, the press service for the regional FSB branch said.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir (the Islamic Party of Liberation) was designated as a terrorist organization and banned in Russia under a Russian Supreme Court decision in 2003. Several cells of the organization were earlier liquidated in Crimea.