Two citizens of Uzbekistan sentenced to imprisonment for trying to join Syrian militants through Crimea

The Southern District Military Court of Russia sentenced the natives of Uzbekistan Feruz Khabibov and Jasur Makhmudov to 9 and 5 years of imprisonment in a strict regime colony for attempting to join the terrorist organization Jabhat al-Nusra, Interfax reports.

“It was established that in 2019 the defendants, while in Simferopol, agreed to join Jabhat al-Nusra and participate in the activities of the organization in Syria,” the court said in a statement.

According to the case file, from August 1, 2019, to March 2020, Khabibov persuaded his friend to leave for Syria to participate in the activities of Jabhat al-Nusra. In March 2020, in Simferopol, the accomplices purchased camouflage uniforms and medicines, as well as tickets for a bus from Krasnodar to Tbilisi (Georgia) and plane tickets from Tbilisi to Istanbul (Turkey), for a subsequent flight to Syria.

The offenders were detained on March 26, 2020, by law enforcement officers in Crimea.

The court sentenced Makhmudov to 5 years and Khabibov to 9 years in prison.

The verdict has not entered into legal force, it can be appealed by the parties in the Military Court of Appeal.