A military court in Russia has sentenced an Azerbaijani citizen to eight years in prison on charges of recruiting young people for the Islamic State (IS) radical group in Syria.

The court, at a trial held in Syktyvkar, the capital of Russia's autonomous republic of Komi on February 20, found Ramil Mirzamov guilty of speading IS ideology via the Internet and recruiting local youths to fight with IS militants in Syria.



Mirzamov has pleaded not guilty.

Investigators say that two students from a university in Syktyvkar joined the IS militants in 2014 after Mirzamov persuaded them to do so.

Russian officials have said that at least 5,000 men and women from Russia and other former Soviet republics have joined the IS in Syria and Iraq in recent years.

Based on reporting by Interfax and TASS