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Russian court sentences IS supporter to 18 years in jail

Investigators found out that the IS emissaries had recruited young people via Internet

SAMARA, May 8. /TASS/. Volga district military court on Tuesday issued an 18-year jail term to Vladimir Tarasov, a supporter of the Islamic State terrorist grouping who planned a terrorist act in the form of blowing up a car full of police officers, a TASS reporter said in an account from the courtroom.

"For the totality of the crimes committed, the court appoints a term of eighteen years in a high-security prison and a fine of 150,000 rubles [$ 2,400] to Vladimir Tarasov," the sentence said.

The judges found the man guilty of preparations for a terrorist act, illegal manufacturing of explosives, involvement in the operations of a terrorist organization, public appeals for terrorism, and assistance to terrorist activity.

As TASS reported earlier, the operatives of the Russian federal security service FSB detained a 19-year-old supporter of the Islamic State in the Samara region, Russia’s Middle Volga area, in 2017. The man tried to blow up a police car.

Investigators found out that the IS emissaries had recruited the youngsters via Internet to commit a terrorist act.

FSB officers found components for an improvised explosive device at the man’s house in the township of Ust-Kinelsky - an explosive equivalent of 500 grams of the TNT that he had made from home care chemical products, an improvised detonator and incapacitating elements in the form of small metal balls.

Law enforcers said members of an ‘IS cell’ in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan had remitted 20,000 rubles [$ 357] to the man for purchasing the components for the device and Syria-based militants had sent their instructions to him.

According to the FSB, Tarasov came into spotlight as a member of a Salafi extremist cell, the operations of which were curbed in April 2016 in the course of a special operation in a clandestine prayer house in the city of Samara.

Also, Tarasov was fined for uploading materials of a terrorist nature in the Internet.