ST. PETERSBURG, August 7 (RAPSI, Kirill Chulkov) – The Kirovsky District Court in St. Petersburg has extended the detention of six alleged organizers of a Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami group, which is a radical Islamic political movement,  until November 7, a representative of the Federal Security Service’s regional department told RAPSI on Thursday.

The detainees are suspected of involvement in the Hizb ut-Tahrir group, which operated in St. Petersburg from July 2011 to June 24, 2014. According to investigators, they regularly held secret meetings, recruited new members to the group and promoted their extremist views.

Russia’s Supreme Court declared Hizb ut-Tahrir an international terrorist organization on February 14, 2003 and prohibited its activity in Russia.

According to a 2003 report by the International Crisis Group conflict-prevention NGO, Hizb ut-Tahrir is a political organization whose aim is to unite all Muslims via the establishment of one large state that could counterbalance the West.

Members of Hizb ut-Tahrir have previously been arrested in various Russian regions but predominantly in large cities in central Russia, the Volga region and Siberia. The organization has many supporters in Crimea, which became a member of the Russian Federation in the spring of 2014.