Dagestan's Supreme Court Sentences Chechen Terrorist Salman Raduyev To Life Imprisonment

The Supreme Court of Dagestan has sentenced Chechen terrorist Salman Raduyev to life imprisonment to be served in a special-regime correctional colony. Such punishment was also requested by Russia's Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov. The court found Raduyev guilty on all counts of the indictment. Also sentenced to imprisonment were other bandits: Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev - to 15 years, Khusein Gaisumov - to 8 years and Aslanbek Alkhazurov - to 5 years of prison. The sentence can be appealed in a higher court - the Supreme Court of Russia. The sentence took four hours to read. Present at the court session was Russia's Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov, who led the state prosecution. The trial in Dagestan's Supreme Court of one of the leaders of Chechen terrorists Salman Raduyev began on November 15 of this year. For the first time the state prosecutor was Russia's Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov. Raduyev was accused under more than 10 articles of the Criminal Code of Russia, including terrorism, killing with particular brutality, organisation of illegal armed formations, kidnappings, hostage takings and banditry. Raduyev was arrested in March 2000 by FSB members in Chechnya. Apart from Raduyev, the other co-accused were Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev, Aslanbek Alkhazurov and Khusein Gaisumov. They were charged with terrorism, organisation of illegal armed formations, kidnappings, hostage-takings and banditry. On January 9, 1996, on Dzhokhar Dudayev's personal instructions, Chechen militants led by Raduyev attacked Kizlyar. The militants' plan was to capture a hospital complex in Kizlyar and take a maximum number of hostages, and to attack a helicopter unit. As a result of Raduyev's bandit raid on Kizlyar and Pervomaiskoye, fatal casualties totaled 78 servicemen, interior ministry members and locals in Dagestan, with several hundred more receiving wounds of different gravity.