ROSTOV-ON-DON, June 25 (RIA Novosti) – A military court in Russia’s restive North Caucasus region on Tuesday sentenced a former serviceman to 15 years in prison for his role in the 2009 assassination of the top police official in the local Dagestan republic.
Dagestan Interior Minister Adilgerei Magomedtagirov was assassinated on June 5, 2009, in an attack that also left another high-ranking ministry official dead and six others wounded. It was the third assassination attempt on Magomedtagirov, who had been the interior minister since 1998.
Andrei Rezanov, who served as a lieutenant at the moment of the assassination, pleaded guilty to all charges, including that he had received 1.5 million rubles ($45,000) from the organizer of the assassination, a militant group led by Ibragim Gadzhidadayev.
“The court ruled to sentence Rezanov to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony … and to deprive him of his military rank,” Judge Alexander Generalov said.
It is yet unclear whether Rezanov intends to appeal the verdict. Another suspect in the case, Dmitry Dolgikh, was earlier sentenced to six and a half years in penal colony.
