MOSCOW, June 16. /TASS/. The prisoners who took hostages in the Rostov-on-Don pre-trial detention center received 18 years in prison in December 2023 for preparing to blow up the Supreme Court building in Karachay-Cherkessia, according to the court verdict, a copy of which was obtained by TASS.

"Last December, the Southern District Military Court found residents of the Republic of Ingushetia Shamil Akiyev, Tamerlan Gireyev and Azamat Tsitskiyev guilty of a number of terrorist crimes, including preparation to blow up the Supreme Court of the Karachay-Cherkessia republic," the document says.

As the court found, being followers of a radical ideology, Akiyev, Gireyev and Tsitskiyev voluntarily united to commit terrorist crimes. For this purpose they went to Cherkessk, where they entered into correspondence via the Internet with a member of the international terrorist organization ISIS (Islamic State, banned in Russia) and videotaped the oath to its leader. After that, they began preparing a terrorist act: they monitored the security of government agencies and law enforcement agencies in order to select the location of the explosion, purchased components for making a explosive device and assembled it. Gireyev and Akiytv received 18 years in prison, and Tsitskiyev was sentenced to 18.5 years in prison, serving the first 4 years in prison and the rest of the time in a maximum security penal colony, with a fine of 550,000 rubles ($6,150) each. The verdict did not enter into legal force.

According to the Main Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Rostov region, on Sunday the accused, who were kept in one of the cells of the pre-trial detention center N 1, took two employees hostage. Law enforcement agencies told TASS that a case officer and an inspector-supervisor are being held hostage. Negotiations are underway to free the hostages. The institution operates as usual, the situation is under control.