MOSCOW, January 12 (RAPSI, Oleg Sivozhelezov) – The Supreme Court of Russia on Thursday upheld a 12-year prison sentence given to former children’s martial art trainer Isa Ragimov for organizing a branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir terrorist organization banned in Russia, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

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.   One of the main organizers of the organized-crime division, Karim Ibragimov, in August 2016 received 17 years in prison.

Ragimov was arrested in April 2015. He was sentenced and convicted in November 2016.

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.