Three jailed for life over murder of Sheikh Said Afandi al-Chirkawi in Dagestan
MAKHACHKALA. April 21 (Interfax) - The Supreme Court of the Republic of Dagestan in Russia's North Caucasus has given life sentences to three people convicted of involvement in the assassination of Sheikh Said Afandi al-Chirkawi in a terrorist attack in August 2012, an Interfax correspondent reported.
The court's decision is based on a jury verdict, issued on April 8.
Those convicted include Shikhmirza Labazanov, Magomed Gadzhiyev and Magomed Amirkhanov. The fourth member of the gang, Akhmed Israpilov, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
During the trial, the defendants pleaded not guilty, and their lawyers demanded that they be acquitted.
The defense teams have already announced plans to appeal their clients' conviction.
Investigators believe that Labazanov, Gadzhiyev and Amirkhanov provided a bomb to a woman called Aminat Saprykina, who came to the house of well-known religious figure Sheikh Said Afandi al-Chirkawi in the village of Chirkei in Dagestan's Buinaksk district on August 28, 2012 and activated the explosive device attached to her body. The explosion killed the sheikh and six other people who were nearby and caused significant damage to the property.
These men were also accused of abducting Sulak Hydropower Cascade chief engineer Vladimir Redkin in 2010 and an entrepreneur in the Moscow region. The suspects demanded that the businessman's wife pay them 500 million rubles, but the businessman managed to escape after a month and a half in captivity.
Israpilov also faced charges of involvement in banditry and kidnapping.
