MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. The Moscow District Military Court has sentenced to 4.5 years in penal colony former student of the Moscow University's Philosophy Department Varvara Karaulova (Alexandra Ivanova), as she was found guilty of an attempt to join the Islamic State terrorist group (outlawed in Russia), TASS correspondent reported from the court.
"The court's decision is Karaulova is guilty, she is sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in a penal colony," Judge Alexander Ababkov announced.
The defense of Karaulova will appeal the sentence, lawyer Sergei Badamshin told TASS.
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"We shall appeal the verdict," he said.
Karaulova made a decision to join the Islamic State’s group called Badr with the aim of eventually carrying out an act of sabotage - in Syria or Europe - by committing a suicide bomb attack. The young woman established contact with an unidentified person in a social network with the aim of becoming a member of one of the group’s cells.
Varvara Karaulova left home on May 27. She told her parents that he was going to the university and secretly left for Istanbul. On June 4, the Turkish branch of Interpol detained her and another 12 Russians when they were crossing Turkey’s southern border with Syria with an aim to join IS militants. She was returned to Russia by flight from Istanbul on June 12.
Karaulova was arrested on suspicion of links to the Islamic State terrorist group on October 28, 2015. Official charges were brought against her on November 10.