North Caucasian resident sentenced to life imprisonment

Resident of Karachaevo-Cherkessia, a North Caucasian republic, Arasul Khubiev has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

He was found guilty of carrying out terrorist acts near the Caucasian resort of Mineralnye Vody and in the Karachaevo-Cherkessian aul (village) of Adyge-Khabl.

His accomplice Khazret Bidzhiev was sentenced to a 9-year imprisonment in a general regime camp. Bidzhiev was acquitted on charges of terrorism and manslaughter, but found guilty of illegal arms carrying and participation in the criminal Dzhamaat group and in illegal armed formations.

Khubiev was found guilty of organizing terrorist acts in a number of North Caucasian cities - at a market in Pyatigorsk in December 2000, at a market in Mineralnye Vody in March 2001, in Yessentuki and in the village of Adyge-Khabl. In these acts the criminal used a car filled with explosives.