Thirty alleged leaders of a banned Islamic group went on trial on Wednesday in a court in central Kazakhstan, authorities said. The accused were arrested over the last several months and are charged with inciting religious discord and membership in a banned organisation, the Karaganda regional branch of the National Security Committee said in a statement. The men are believed to be leaders and activists with the group Hizb-ut-Tahrir, and are suspected of trying to recruit new members, authorities said. The trial will be closed to the public and is expected to last up to three months, court officials said.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation) aims to create a worldwide Islamic state but claims to disavow violence. The group spread through the predominantly Muslim states of Soviet Central Asia after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Hizb-ut-Tahrir has been banned in Central Asia and Russia.