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Five IS group’s members sentenced for plotting terror attacks in Moscow

The defendants have been sentenced for plotting terror attacks on the territory of the French Embassy in Moscow

Ruslan Esmurziyev, Magomed Amatkhanov and Elberd Kharsiyev Valeriy Matytsin/TASS

Ruslan Esmurziyev, Magomed Amatkhanov and Elberd Kharsiyev

© Valeriy Matytsin/TASS

ROSTOV-ON-DON, February 28. /TASS/. The North Caucasus District Military Court has sentenced five citizens of Russia’s Ingushetia Republic to between 12 and 20 years in a maximum security colony for plotting terror attacks on the territory of the French Embassy in Moscow overnight to January 1, 2017 and illegally storing weapons.

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The court ordered to "recognize the defendants guilty on all charges." Magomed Amatkhanov was sentenced to 20 years, Salamkhan Sampiyev and Ruslan Esmurziyev to 17 years, Elberd Kharsiyev to 13 years and Khusen Kitiyev to 12 years in behind the bars.

Other charges include involvement in the activity of the Islamic State (terror group, outlawed in Russia) in Ingushetia, preparations for terror attacks in Moscow on the territory of the French Embassy and in the subway on New Year’s Eve in 2017 and also storing weapons and explosives.

The court found convincing the evidence that in January 2016 Esmurziyev and Sampiyev, the followers of the IS group, joined a banned cell via the Internet. Later, Amatkhanov, who fought in Syria on the side of the IS in July-August 2014, also joined them.

In September 2016, the defendants started plotting the terror attacks in Moscow, buying weapons and vehicles and the purchase was bankrolled by their coordinators. According to the case files, during the operation to detain the men in November 2016 police seized 8 Kalashnikov rifles, 4 pistols, more than 500 rounds of ammunition, hand grenades and self-made explosives, including a suicide belt. The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.

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