Uzbek citizen sentenced to 20 years in Russia for planning terrorist attack

A military court in Russia’s Southern District, located in Rostov-on-Don, has sentenced an Uzbek citizen to 20 years in prison after finding him guilty of preparing a terrorist attack on a government building in Stavropol, the court said on its Telegram channel.

According to the statement, in January 2023 the defendant recorded a video declaring his readiness to act in the interests of ISIS.

Following instructions from the group’s leadership, he agreed to select a location in Russia, study potential targets, and rent premises to store and assemble improvised explosive devices.

On September 23, 2023, he arrived in Russia from Uzbekistan and chose the city of Stavropol. He photographed and filmed several sites and sent the collected materials to ISIS representatives.

He was later instructed to target the Stavropol regional government building.

In December, he purchased components needed to assemble an explosive device and hid them in a concealed location. He was detained by security services on December 18.

The court imposed a strict sentence due to the seriousness of the crime. He will serve the first five years in prison, with the remainder in a high-security penal colony, and was also fined 1 million rubles.

Earlier, a court in Russia’s Novosibirsk region arrested an Uzbek citizen accused of organizing illegal migration by selling fake contracts to at least 270 foreign nationals online.

E’zoza Olimova