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Leader of extremist group in Petersburg sentenced to 6 months jail

Shirazi Bekirov, detained in March 2013, was accused of organizing the operation of an extremist organization

ST PETERSBURG, August 28 (Itar-Tass) - Magistrate Court in St. Petersburg sentenced the leader of an extremist group to six months in a penal colony. Shirazi Bekirov, detained in March 2013, was accused of organizing the operation of an extremist organization, Marina Nikolayeva, senior aide to the city prosecutor, told Itar-Tass.

The magistrate court was in session earlier on Wednesday. "The prosecutor for the state insisted on a fine," Nikolayeva said, adding that the prosecutor would appeal the court's ruling.

She did not elaborate on the prosecutor's demands.

The investigator said Bekirov set up a class in his apartment in St Petersburg in early 2009 to study the religious teaching of the Nurdzhular organization. On March 2, 2013, Federal Security Service agents detained ten people involved in the organization's activity, including four citizens of Azerbaijan and a citizen of Turkmenistan. Three foreigners were deported as they posed a threat to national security, the authorities said.

Nurdzhular, which advocates Islamic fundamentalism was blacklisted as extremist and banned in Russia by the Supreme Court ruling dated April 10, 2008.