MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has arrested members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir international terrorist organization (designated as terrorist and outlawed in Russia) in Crimea, who were recruiting locals into their ranks, the FSB press service said in a statement.
"A secret network of the Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami international terrorist organization, which consisted of five Russian nationals, was dismantled in Crimea," the statement reads.
"It was established that the terrorist cell’s operatives spread the organization's ideas, based on the concept of the so-called global caliphate, among Crimean Muslims, and recruited new members in secret meetings," the FSB pointed out.
A lot of propaganda material banned in Russia, communication equipment, and digital storage devices used for terrorist purposes were seized from their homes.
The FSB branch in Crimea and Sevastopol opened criminal investigations into those detained. Search and investigative activities continue.
Russia’s Supreme Court blacklisted the international religious and political organization Hizb ut-Tahrir (or Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami, the Party of Islamic Liberation in Arabic) as a terrorist group on February 14, 2003. Its activities in Russia are prohibited.