MOSCOW, April 30 (RIA Novosti/RAPSI) - Prosecutors on Tuesday asked for a 16-year prison term for the man found guilty of killing convicted murderer and war criminal Yury Budanov.
A Moscow City Court jury on Monday convicted Yusup Temerkhanov, a Chechen native, of killing former Col. Budanov because of his hatred of all Russian servicemen who had fought in Chechnya.
Budanov, 47, was killed in Moscow in June 2011, two years after his early release from prison, where he had served most of a 10-year sentence for kidnapping and killing 18-year-old Elza Kungayeva in the village of Tangi-Chu, Chechnya, in March 2000.
Temerkhanov shot Budanov eight times and set a getaway car on fire to destroy all the evidence of his involvement in the crime, prosecutors said.
However, investigators found and retrieved enough evidence, including DNA samples, to identify Temerkhanov as the hitman, Russia’s Investigative Committee said.
Temerkhanov pleaded not guilty, but prosecutors insisted that his actions had been motivated by revenge for the death of his father, who was killed in 2000 by unidentified Russian soldiers.
Temerkhanov picked Budanov as a target because the former colonel was one of the few Russian army officers prosecuted over abuses committed during Russia's two campaigns against Chechen separatist militants, according to case materials.
