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.