Ex-Ichkerian secret agent Khamzat Khasarov sentenced to 13 years in prison

The Volgograd District Court has sentenced Khamzat Khasarov, a leader of ex-Ichkerian special services in Chechnya, to 13 years in high-security prison for illegal purchase and keeping of firearms and premeditated murder.

Investigation has proved that Khasarov is guilty of the murder of two people.

In July 1993, Khasarov and his accomplices fired shots at a gathering in front of the House of Officers in the center of Volgograd, killing three and wounding four people.

Khasarov then escaped to Chechnya, where he headed Dudayev's Kobra detachment uniting about 70 militants. He also acted under the leadership of Maskhadov as a deputy head of the counterintelligence service of the so-called Department of National Security of Ichkeria.

Khasarov was arrested in Odessa in late December 2001 in the course of an operation conducted by Russian and Ukrainian power structures. After that, he was extradited to Volgograd on Russia's request and put into a pre-trial detention center.

He did not admit his guilt during the court hearings.