A court in southern Russia sentenced five men to prison terms of more than six years each in the first convictions related to a mass anti-Israel protest last October at the airport in the capital of the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region, Makhachkala.

The men, who received sentences ranging from six to nine years for participating in the riots, pleaded not guilty, the Krasnodar District Court announced. A protester was also found guilty of violence against a government official.

The trial was moved from Dagestan to Krasnodar due to the sensitive nature of the case.

Last October, hundreds of protesters stormed the airport in the city of Makhachkala, where a plane from Tel Aviv had just arrived, protesting against Israel’s war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.

Videos showed the protesters, mostly young men, waving Palestinian flags, breaking glass doors and running through the airport shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is great).

The crowd gathered at the airport after a message posted on a local Telegram channel called on the people of Dagestan to meet the “uninvited guests” in an “appropriate manner” and force the aircraft and passengers to leave and go somewhere else .

The channel, which was later banned on the Telegram app, did not use the word ‘Jew’ but called the plane’s passengers ‘unclean’.

More than 20 people were injured before the forces managed to contain the incidents. The passengers of the aircraft were not injured.

Police arrested dozens of people, whose cases are currently being heard in Russian courts.

President Vladimir Putin has blamed the West and Ukraine for the unrest, without presenting any evidence. Kiev has denied any involvement and the United States has strongly condemned the violent incidents.