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Urvan warlord, his accomplice sentenced to life in prison

The court found them guilty of terrorist crimes

ROSTOV-ON-DON, September 29 (Itar-Tass) —— The North Caucasus District Court Martial sentenced a warlord of the so-called Urvan jamaat Alim Bitokhov and his accomplice Alim Khubiyev to life in prison. Other defendants were convicted from 16 to 22 years in prison.

The court found them guilty of terrorist crimes.

Meanwhile, Alim Khubiyev was sentenced to life in prison, because he had previous convictions for heinous crimes. Another defendant Artur Isakov was stripped on the military rank of lieutenant under the court verdict.

At the trial the public prosecutor demanded to sentence Bikhotov to life imprisonment and a fine of one million roubles. He demanded to pass the same verdict for Bikhotov’s accomplice Alim Khubiyev. The public prosecutor demanded to sentence other defendants to various terms in prison from 18 to 24 years and the fines from 200,000 to one million roubles.

Under the guilty verdict a resident of Kabardino-Balkaria Alim Bitokhov, who was a supporter of the radical Islamic religious movement, has formed in January 2005 an armed gang, which was seeking to separate the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria from Russia and to form an Islamic state on the territory of the republic with a Shariat rule. He was seeking to attain his goal through attempts on the life of law enforcers.

From August 2007 to October 2008 the gang committed several crimes, including the murder of an operative in the Urvan municipal district, a security guard of the Rosneft-Kabardino-Balkaria Fuel Company, a member of the gang and the illegal acquisition of weapons.

Most defendants were detained in September-October 2008. The trial against them was held in Nalchik. Then the trial was moved to Rostov-on-Don under the federal law, which permits to change the territorial jurisdiction of terrorism cases, if a real threat is looming for the parties in the trial.

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