MOSCOW, June 23 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Supreme Court’s Military Collegium on Thursday upheld the sentence handed down to five members of Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami organization banned in Russia, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

On February 4, circuit session of the Moscow Regional Military Court sentenced five members of Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami branch to prison terms ranging from 5.5 to 17 years. The court found them guilty of creating and participation in the extremist and terrorist organizations and preparing to seizure or retention of power.

According to investigators, in 2013, residents of the Chelyabinsk Region, Salavat Khabirov, Alfred Shaimov, Rinat Shamsutdinov, Orifdzhan Mirov and Radik Kabirov, organized a branch of the terrorist organization. Counterintelligence agents stopped their activity in October 2014.

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 last spring.