MOSCOW, June 15 (RAPSI, Yevgeniya Sokolova) – The Moscow District Military Court has sentenced members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir terrorist organization banned in Russia to prison terms varying from 15 to 18 years, RAPSI reports from the courtroom on Thursday.

Defendants in the case, Amirkhan Numonchonov, Alisher Khuseynov, Sukhrob Ironov, Naimdzhon Khodzhayev and Mirzobakhovvadin Kurbonov were found guilty of organizing activity of a terrorist group. Kurbonov and Ironov were fined 100,000 and 130,000 rubles (about $1,745 and $2,200) respectively. The court found that defendants had participated in activities of the terrorist organization propagating ideas of radical Islam.

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.