MOSCOW, November 9 (RIA Novosti) – Eduard Tagiryanov, who headed one of Russia’s most notorious criminal groups in the late 1990s and early 2000s, was sentenced to life in prison on Friday, a spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee said.
"Members of the gang have been convicted of over 20 murders and dozens of other serious crimes, committed mostly in order to extort money from businessmen,” spokesman Vladimir Markin said.
Along with Tagiryanov, two accomplices – Albert Khuzin and Oleg Datsko - also stood trial.
“Tagiryanov and Datsko were sentenced to life. Khuzin will spend 25 years in prison,” Markin said.
The Tagiryanov gang, which emerged in the late 1990s in the Volga area city of Naberezhnye Chelny, was among Russia’s most dangerous criminal groups until 2007. Its members are suspected in dozens of brutal crimes in the Volga area, Moscow and Urals.
Tagiryanov and most members of his group were detained in 2003 and sentenced to lengthy prison terms in 2007.
