A court in the Russian city of St. Petersburg has sentenced a member of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir organization to eight years in prison on extremism charges.
Vladimir Shmotov, who is an ethnic Russian, was found guilty on March 19 of "calling for terrorist activities" via the Internet and through holding gatherings and seminars with local residents in the Leningrad region.
He was sentenced the same day.
In recent years, several Russian converts to Islam who were residents of the Leningrad region and its capital, St. Petersburg, were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for being members of the group and propagating its ideas.
Hizb ut-Tahrir is a London-based Sunni political organization that seeks to unite all Muslim countries into an Islamic caliphate.
Russia's Supreme Court banned the group in 2003, branding its members and supporters as "extremists."
