2 Siberian brothers get 2-year prison sentences for $250 ‘terrorism’ donation

Two brothers from Siberia were sentenced to two years in prison each for financing terrorist activity after they gave $122 and $115 dollars, respectively, to a group officially banned in Russia for terrorism.

The incident took place in the city of Tomsk, located in Russia’s Siberia. The older brother, then-23-year-old Marat Asadoullin, contacted the group Imarat Kavkaz (‘Caucasian Emirate’) through email in February 2009 and offered a donation, saying he agreed with the organization’s militant views. Asadoullin’s younger brother Suleiman agreed to contribute money as well. Police launched separate investigations into their cases in December 2011.A few months later, Suleiman was sentenced to four years imprisonment, but his defense team appealed his sentence, reducing it to two years. Marat’s case was heard in court in October – the proceedings took a single day, and resulted in a two-year prison sentence.The notorious Imarat Kavkaz is headed by Doku Umarov, Russia’s most-wanted terrorist, who vowed to stage attacks during the Sochi Olympics in 2014.Umarov's group was speculated to have connections with Al-Qaeda and other global terrorist organizations. The group is allegedly funded entirely by foreign sources.