In Kabardin-Balkaria abductor of Israeli citizen sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment

On Monday the Supreme Court of Kabardin-Balkaria (a republic in the Northern Caucasus) sentenced 39-year-old Musa Aushev, a native of Ingush settlement of Surkhakhi (Ingushetia is a North-Caucasian republic neighbouring on Chechnya), to 13 years of imprisonment.

Aushev was found guilty of kidnapping Laura Likhtman, a 22-year-old citizen of Israel, in July 1999. The girl was kept in Chechnya for a half-year, and one million dollars was demanded for setting her free. Likhtman was freed by the staffers of the North-Caucasian Directorate for Combating Organised Crime in December 1999.

Another participant in the kidnapping of Laura Likhtman, Urus-Martan resident Bulat Umalatov, who was a witness at the present trial, was sentenced to 7.5 years of imprisonment in August 2001.