MOSCOW, April 26 (RAPSI, Oleg Sivozhelezov) – The North-Caucasus District Military Court has found Crimean resident Ruslan Zeytullayev guilty of establishing in the republic a cell of Hizb ut-Tahrir terrorist organization banned in Russia and sentenced him to 12 years in prison, the court’s press office told RAPSI on Wednesday.

In December 2016, Russia’s Supreme Court reversed a 7-year prison sentence given to Hizb ut-Tahrir member Zeytullayev and ordered a retrial. During hearings in the Supreme Court, prosecutor insisted on vacation of the judgment in order to typify his actions as organizing the activities of terrorist criminal association.

According to investigators, Zeytullayev joined Hizb ut-Tahrir terrorist organization in 2005. Law enforcement authorities believe that he established the organization’s cell in several regions of Crimea in the spring of 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.