ST. PETERSBURG, July 18 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – The Moscow District Military Court during its offsite hearing in St. Petersburg on Wednesday sentenced Alla Bespalova, an alleged leader of the regional women’s cell of Hizb ut-Tahrir terrorist group banned in Russia, to 5 years in prison, RAPSI reports from the Leningrad District Military Court.

The case was heard under a special procedure without examination of evidence because Bespalova pleaded guilty and cooperated with investigation. Prosecutors earlier demanded 6 years in prison for the woman.

Bespalova has been charged with organizing and managing the terrorist group. According to prosecutors, she has been the leader of the St. Petersburg Hizb ut-Tahrir women’s cell since 2012. She organized meetings, where women studied banned literature containing terrorist ideology, and recruited new members to the terrorist group.

Bespalova is the mother of Sergey Yablokov, who was sentenced in 2016 to 12.5 years in prison for creating the St. Petersburg cell of Hizb ut-Tahrir, and the partner of Tajik national Farkhod Nurmatov, who is currently on trial on terrorism charges.

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 March 2014.