ST. PETERSBURG, August 9 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – Alleged organizers of the St. Petersburg branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir organization banned in Russia, Eldar Ramazanov, Karim Ibragimov and Ilyas Kagirov, have pleaded not guilty to charges brought against them, RAPSI reported from the court on Tuesday.

The Moscow District Military Court began hearing on the merits in the case during a visiting session in St. Petersburg.

Ibragimov and Ramazanov are charged with participation in the banned organization, creating media office of the Party of Islamic liberation and video channel called “Islam in St. Petersburg”. According to investigators, they promoted anticonstitutional ideas of the Islamic State via this channel. Kagirov was engaged in the group’s activity by Ibragimov and Ramazanov.

A criminal case over Hizb ut-Tahrir activity in St. Petersburg was opened in May 2014.

In the summer of 2014, the Federal Security Service (FSB) in cooperation with police arrested about 30 individuals allegedly involved in the Islamic group’s activity in St. Petersburg. Ivanov was arrested in the Leningrad Region on June 24, 2014. Nine people were detained.

In the summer of 2015, two defendants in the case, Gapur Magomedov and Makhamadinin Saliev, were sentenced to 5 years in prison each.

In March, the court sentenced two leaders of Hizb ut-Tahrir branch, Roman Ivanov and Sergei Yablokov, to 13.5 and 12.5 years in prison respectively. In June, Russia’s Supreme Court’s Military Collegium reduced the sentence handed down to Ivanov by 4 months.

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 in 2014.