Suspect in Col. Budanov murder case gets 15 years in high security prison
MOSCOW. May 7 (Interfax) - The Moscow City Court has sentenced Yusup Temerkhanov to 15 years in a high security prison after a jury found him guilty of killing ex-Colonel Yury Budanov.
The prison term is laid down in the resolute part of the sentence, an Interfax correspondent reported from the courtroom.
Prosecutor Maria Semenenko had demanded that Temerkhanov be sentenced to 16 years in a high security prison on counts of murder and illegal possession and acquisition of weapons.
Temerkhanov's defense attorney Murad Musayev claimed that the jury had brushed away the suspect's hatred for the military as a social group from the list of motives for the murder as unproven. He also said that a guilty verdict that does not contain the motive does not objectively convey the degree of guilt. Nor does it suggest the severity of punishment, Musayev said.
Chechen native Magomed Suleimanov, a suspect in Budanov's murder, was remanded into custody by Moscow's Presnensky Court on August 26, 2011. The man's identify was subsequently clarified, and he was renamed as Yusup Temerkhanov in the case files. He was charged with murder (Part 2 of Article 105) and illegal possession of weapons (Part 1 of Article 222).
According to investigators, Temerkhanov fired eight shots at Budanov with a pistol as the latter was leaving a notary office at Moscow's Komsomolsky Avenue on June 10, 2011.
After the murder, Temerkhanov left in his Mitsubishi Lancer, which he later burned, hoping to destroy all evidence of his involvement in the crime.
Investigators believe that Temerkhanov decided to kill Budanov seeking to avenge the death of his father during a counterterrorist operation in Chechnya in 2000. Temerkhanov accused Budanov of involvement in his father's death.
Temerkhanov's case was re-heard after the previous jury was dismissed on February 13 for various reasons.
Temerkhanov's lawyers said then that the dismissal of the jury was intentional and allegedly demonstrated the court's bias against their client.
Temerkhanov said on April 17, 2013 that he had nothing to do with Budanov's murder.
"On the day of the murder I was not at Komsomolsky Avenue and did not shoot at Budanov," he said.