Awaiting his extradition Tajik national Safar Karimov has reportedly tried to recruit four Russians into the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror group.

The press center of the Prosecutor-General’s Office of Tajikistan says Safar Karimov, 60, was detained by Russian law enforcement officers in 2017 in the Samara oblast and pending extradition, he was placed in a temporary detention center. 

Awaiting his extradition, Safar Rahimov tried to recruit four Russians – Arkhipov, Alpatov, Petrov and Kuzmich – into the ISIS terror group during the period from August to November 2017.  

From 2004 to 2016, Karimov regularly traveled for labor migration to the Russian Federation.  In Moscow, he was imbued with the ideas of the ISIS terror group, which has been banned in Tajikistan since 2015.  

He reportedly began propagating ISIS ideas in Moscow and recruited the Hasanov brothers into the organization. 

After being extradited to Tajikistan, Karimov, who is resident of the Qubodiyon district in the Khatlon province, was sentenced by the Khatlon regional court to twelve years in prison. 

The sentence followed his conviction on the charge of Illegal involvement of citizens of Tajikistan and stateless persons in hostilities military operations in the territory of other states (Article 401 (1) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code), according to the Prosecutor-General’s Office of Tajikistan.    

Karimov is reportedly serving his term in a high-security penal colony.