MOSCOW, October 26 (RAPSI) – The North Caucasus District Military Court has sentenced two men, Akramzhon Abdullayev and Nematzhon Isroilov, to 15 and 13 years in prison respectively for recruiting new members to Hizb ut-Tahrir terrorist organization banned in Russia, the court’s spokesperson Alena Katkalo has told RAPSI.

According to the court ruling, Abdullayev and Isroilov were spreading terrorist ideology starting January 2015. Investigators claimed that the men were studying and keeping Hizb ut-Tahrir ideological materials and extremist literature.

From January 2015 to late August 2016, the defendants held gatherings disguised as traditional Islam study to involve people in the terrorist group’s activities, the Investigative Committee of Russia reported.

Abdullayev and Isroilov were arrested on August 25, 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. Also, there are many supporters in Crimea, which rejoined Russia in the spring of 2014.