A court in the Russian city of St Petersburg has sentenced a man to 12 1/2 years in prison on charges of being a leader of the banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir organization.
Sergei Yablokov was found guilty of "organizing the activities of a terrorist group," his defense lawyer said on March 30.
The lawyer, Vladimir Spiridovich, said Yablokov pleaded guilty and "repented."
Yablokov was arrested along with another alleged leader of a Hizb-ut-Tahrir cell in St. Petersburg, Roman Ivanov in June 2014.
Ivanov is being tried separately.
Russia's Supreme Court banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir in 2003, designating it a "terrorist organization."
The group is also banned across Central Asia.
Hizb- ut-Tahrir, a London-based Sunni political organization, seeks to unite all Muslim countries into an Islamic caliphate.
