ST. PETERSBURG, April 2 (RAPSI) – Two alleged leaders of a cell of the international terrorist group Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami were arrested in St. Petersburg, the Federal Security Service, or FSB, announced on Thursday.

The men are accused of participating in terrorist activities under Russian Criminal Code. 

Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Party of Islamic Liberation), founded in in Jerusalem in 1953, is banned in several Arab and Central Asian countries. Russia's Supreme Court banned the group from operating on the territory of the country in 2003, describing it as a terrorist organization.

Hizb ut-Tahrir members are regularly arrested by the police across Russia, mainly in big cities in central Russia, the Volga region and Siberia. Also, there are many supporters in Crimea, which rejoined Russia last spring.

A criminal case over the creation of a Hizb ut-Tahrir cell in the St. Petersburg region was opened last May.