MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) apprehended six members of an international terrorist cell in Crimea, the FSB told TASS on Friday.
"The Federal Security Service in conjunction with the Russian Federation National Guard (Rosgvardiya - TASS) in the Republic of Crimea interdicted the activity of a six-man cell of the Hizb ut-Tahrir (Arabic for Party of Liberation - TASS) international terrorist organization (outlawed in Russia)," the FSB said.
According to the FSB, the detainees were involved in anti-constitutional activities based on the ideology of establishing a global caliphate, destroying secular institutions and forcibly overthrowing existing governments. While using conspiratorial methods, the cell members disseminated terrorist ideas and recruited Muslim residents of Crimea as terrorists. A significant cache of propaganda materials and communications and electronic data storage devices, as well as a large sum of money in a foreign currency intended to fund the terrorist organization’s activities, were confiscated from the cell members’ places of residence, the FSB added.
FSB investigators in the Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol have launched criminal probes.
In January, nine members of a Hizb ut-Tahrir cell who had been recruiting Russian citizens from among the local Muslim population were detained in Crimea. They had been acting on instructions from their handlers based in Ukraine.