MOSCOW, October  22 (RAPSI) – Law enforcement officers have arrested a native of Tajikistan who allegedly headed the Moscow group of the international terrorist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami, RIA Novosti reported Thursday citing spokesperson for Russia’s Interior Ministry, Yelena Alekseyeva.

Earlier, an alleged leader of the St. Petersburg group of Hizb ut-Tahrir was arrested and then put in jail.

Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Party of Islamic Liberation), founded 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.