All news

Verdict in Khangoshvili case biased, politically motivated — Russian ambassador to Germany

This decision further complicates the already complicated Russian-German relations, Sergey Nechayev noted

BERLIN, December 15. /TASS/. The Russian embassy in Berlin has found that the Berlin court’s verdict, pronounced in the case launched over the murder of a Georgian citizen in August 2019, was biased and politically motivated and warned that it would not remain without a reaction, Russian ambassador Sergey Nechayev said in a statement on Wednesday.

"According to the information available, a German court on December 15, 2021, pronounced a verdict saying that Russian state structures were behind the murder of Georgian citizen Z. Khangoshvili in Berlin on August 23, 2019. We regard this verdict as biased and politically motivated and a move that further complicates the already complicated Russian-German relations," the embassy’s news release reads.

Earlier, Berlin’s regional court sentenced a Russian citizen to life imprisonment on charges of killing an ethnic Chechen of Georgian nationality, Zelimkhan Khangoshvili. The case has been considered since October 2020 amid tight security. The court found the accused Russian guilty of murder and stressed the seriousness of the offense. At the same time, the judge said that "there is no doubt Khangoshvili had been responsible for people’s deaths" during his participation in hostilities on the side of Chechen militants.

"The absurd thesis that the Russian Federation was involved in this wrongful act was methodically imposed on the public throughout the trial, woven into the general anti-Russian background, but in the end it was never confirmed by any convincing evidence. We raise grave concerns over the outcome, and such an unfriendly act won’t be left unanswered. The chosen time of the announcement of the verdict can hardly be coincidental. Apparently, someone has interests in the dialogue between Russia and the new German government being marred at the very beginning."