ST. PETERSBURG, August 6 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – Four men will stand trial for failure to report to the police that they were subject to recruiting to terrorist organizations, the United press service of St. Petersburg courts has told RAPSI.

A criminal case against three natives of Kazakhstan, who have Russian citizenship, Shukhrat Satymbayev, Aizhigit Aitmatov and Bakhodir Madrakhimov, and one Kyrgyz national Iskander Nurbayev, has been forwarded to the Leninsky District Court of St. Petersburg for hearing.  The men are charged with failure to report a crime.

According to case papers, in August 2016, two Kyrgyz natives Atabek Rustamov and Uula Islambek Oibek attempted to recruit the defendants to the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organizations banned in Russia through WhatsApp messenger. Madrakhimov did not join the relevant chats in the messenger but was aware of their creation and content.

The chats contained videos and messages propagating radical Islam and calling for using force against non-Islamic people, committing terrorist attacks and participating in warfare on the side of the Islamic State militants. The accused persons were being recruited for over a year but did not report this to the police.