A court in Siberia has sentenced a Kyrgyz national to five years in jail for recruiting members to the banned Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
The Prosecutor-General’s Office in Russia’s Tyva region said on June 10 that Azamat Kasymbek-Uulu, a native of Bishkek, had pleaded guilty.
Hizb ut-Tahrir is a London-based Sunni organization that seeks to unite all Muslim countries into an Islamic caliphate.
Russia's Supreme Court banned Hizb ut-Tahrir in 2003, branding its members and supporters as "extremists."
The group is also banned in Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian countries.
Kyrgyz authorities say Hizb ut-Tahrir is part of a strategy by Al-Qaeda and Islamic State militants to radicalize young people and recruit them to fight in Syria and Iraq.
