MOSCOW, April 30 (RAPSI) - Four members of Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami organization who were planning to carry out a terrorist attack in the city of Nizhny Novgorod were sentenced to prison terms ranging from eight to ten years, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday, citing a local prosecutor's office.

The arrest of three alleged terrorists, all nationals of Tajikistan, was reported in spring 2013. According to the local police, the detainees were recruiting supporters and instigating anti-constitutional activity among Muslims in the Nizhny Novgorod Region. They followed “the doctrine of a step-by-step establishment of an Islamic unitarian theocracy, a caliphate. They were in possession of grenades and explosives that were confiscated. The terrorist attack, according to the detainees, failed “due to circumstances beyond their control.” They could not carry out the attack because they were arrested.

The Hizb ut-Tahrir organization has been banned in Russia by the Supreme Court order since 2003 based on a presentation of the Prosecutor General’s Office and evidence collected by the Federal Security Service. The police detain members of this organization on a regular basis across Russia, mainly in big cities in Central Russia, the Volga Region and Siberia. There are many supporters of this organization in Crimea.