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Tass, 12 July 2016

A court in Aktobe (former Aktyubinsk in west Kazakhstan) has sentenced 12 Kazakhstani citizens to various imprisonment terms as they planned to go to Syria to fight for the Islamic State terrorist organization (outlawed in Russia), the court’s press office told TASS on Tuesday.

The court has recognized the twelve persons guilty "of attempting to participate in the activity of a terrorist group or in the committal of terrorist acts, the financing of terrorist and extremist activity and other complicity in terrorism or extremism," the press office said.

The court has found that the accused persons got in touch with a recruiter of terrorists via the Internet to join the ranks of Islamic State gunmen and attempted to make false passports of Uzbekistani and Kyrgyzstani citizens.

It also follows from the court’s materials that one of the convicts provided them financial support.

According to the court’s verdict, the members of the extremist group have been imprisoned for terms from six to eight years with the confiscation of their property.

A minivan with the extremists was detained during search operations in February this year on the Aktobe-Shymkent highway. The group intended to get to the Kordai district in the Zhambyl Region in south Kazakhstan, from which the extremists planned to cross into Kyrgyzstan.

They further planned to use forged documents to fly to Turkey where guides were expected to meet the extremists and escort them to Islamic State militants.