BELGOROD, May 11 /TASS/. A court in the Russian city of Belgorod on Tuesday sentenced Imam Faizul Ismailov to three years in jail for storing ammunition and explosives in his mosque.
"The court found Ismailov guilty and sentenced him to three years in a general regime penal colony. His prison term will be calculated since the moment of detention - on December 13, 2015," the judge said.
The trial took place behind the closed doors.
The news about the imam’s detention became known on December 15, 2015. A law enforcement source told TASS back then that the Federal Security Service officers had detained the imam three days before. Investigators questioned him for several days until December 17. Weapons, ammunition and explosives were found during a raid on the mosque.
Earlier, Ismailov had been found guilty of spreading extremist materials and was sentenced to a fine worth 4,500 rubles (56 euros). The Federal Security Service employees found the banned literature in the mosque of the religious organization "Peace and Creation". Eight books, which the Russian Justice Ministry had included in the federal list of extremist materials, were found in the mosque. The banned literature was stored in the imam’s room and was available to the parishioners.
Late in March, the Belgorod regional court upheld the decision of Belgorod’s Oktyabrsky district court that Ismailov was guilty of disseminating extremist literature.