ROSTOV-ON-DON, April 10 /ITAR-TASS/. The North Caucasus District Military Court /SKOVS/ sentenced one of the masterminds behind the 2010 terrorist attack in Vladikavkaz to life imprisonment.
Isa Khashagulgov who got life was found guilty of masterminding the explosion on Vladikavkaz central market in September 2010 in which 19 people were killed and 240 injured.
Khizar Daurbekov was sentenced to 24 years in jail, Mikhail Khashagulgov and Magomed Daurbekov were sentenced to 14 years in prison each, and Yusup Dzangiyev was sentenced to 20 years.
They were charged with 24 terrorism-related crimes. Two of them were committed in North Ossetia and 22 in Ingushetia. Among the most serious crimes were the terrorist attack on Vladikavkaz central market, a small arms attack on a road police post in the Ingush village of Yandara and bomb attacks on road police posts elsewhere.
The case was sent from Vladikavkaz to Rostov-on-Don for the sake of personal safety of judges and participants in the trial. The case comprised 576 volumes. Prosecution logged 606 injured parties and 406 witnesses. It took the court two days to read the verdict.
Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said the defendants had jointed the Vilayat Galgaiche criminal group in which Isa Khashagulgov had been one of the leaders. On September 9, 2010, they set off a car bomb at the entrance to the central market of Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia. The authorities recognized 472 people as injured parties, including 19 fatalities. The damage caused by the explosion exceeded three million roubles. According to the investigator, Isa Khashagulgov and Khizar Daurbekov had made the bomb and planted it.
On September 2009, the group staged an explosion near the Volga-16 road police office in Ingushetia, in which two civilians were killed and four police officers were injured. This plan of attack was used again to target the same post in December 2009. Five police, 11 servicemen and five civilians were injured in the bombing.
In 2010, the dynamiters carried out several attacks on the Volga-17 road police post injuring three police. At police post # 105 in North Ossetia, one policeman was killed in an explosion, and his four colleagues were injured.
During the investigation into the criminal case, police seized from the criminal group more than 350 firearms, 50,000 rounds of ammunition and 100 kilograms of explosives. Investigation was conducted in Ingushetia and North Ossetia, with 1,700 expert examinations, 67 searches, and 75 seizures of documents from natural persons and legal entities.
Four hundred and seventy-six persons were questioned as witnesses, and 71 were questioned as suspects.
The defendants' lawyers said they would appeal against the verdict.
"We'll challenge the verdict. The evidence and the defence's arguments have not been sufficiently examined by the court," said Viktor Vorozheikin, the lawyer of Magomed Daurbekov.
Aslanbek Salatov, the lawyer of Yusup Dzangiyev called the verdict unfair. "Much of the evidence was obtained with gross violation of legislation," he said.