A court in St. Petersburg has sentenced three men, including a citizen of Tajikistan, to imprisonment for abusing children at an illegal Islamic religious school, or madrasa, operating in the Russian city.

According to Russian media reports, Tajik citizen Sharofiddin Rahmatov and Azerbaijani citizen Fazli Agayev were sentenced to six years each in prison. Turkish citizen Shaban Dincher received a sentence of six and a half years. All three are to be deported from Russia after serving their prison terms.

The court found the defendants guilty of abusing minors and establishing an unregistered organization that violated citizens’ rights.

Investigators said the men arrived in Russia in 2022 on work visas, rented an apartment in St. Petersburg, and opened a madrasa affiliated with the international religious movement “Suleymandjelar,” which is not officially registered in Russia.

According to the investigation, the school operated without the necessary permits and licenses and recruited children to study religious subjects. Prosecutors alleged that the defendants used physical and psychological violence against students, including beatings with hands, sticks, and belts, ear twisting, verbal abuse, and intimidation.

The case involved four child victims. Authorities launched an investigation after one of the students, a 10-year-old boy, was hospitalized with injuries.

The case comes amid broader concerns over illegal religious education involving children.

Earlier this year, authorities in Tajikistan detained Abdullo Aslamov, a resident of Vakhsh district in Khatlon province, on suspicion of organizing illegal religious instruction and abusing 13 minors in Dushanbe.

According to the Dushanbe police department, Aslamov rented an apartment on Ayni Street in Dushanbe and organized an unofficial religious school there. Investigators alleged that children were kept in cramped and unsanitary conditions, deprived of regular contact with their parents, and subjected to physical abuse.