Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reported yesterday that authorities in the Russian city of St. Petersburg have arrested a Tajik national on extremism charges.

A spokeswoman for the Kirov District Court said on January 19 that Farhod Nurmatov, who is suspected of being a member of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, was sent to two-month pretrial detention.

A total of nine people linked to Hizb ut-Tahrir have been arrested and brought to trial in St. Petersburg since 2014. Most of them have been sentenced to long prison terms.

Six more alleged members of the group were arrested in November.

Russia's Supreme Court banned Hizb ut-Tahrir in 2003, designating it a terrorist organization.

The London-based Sunni political organization is also banned across Central Asia.

Hizb ut-Tahrir seeks to unite all Muslim countries into an Islamic caliphate but says its methods for reaching that goal are peaceful.