Men Sentenced in Dagestan Bombing
A court in southern Russia on Monday sentenced two men to life in prison for a 1999 apartment house bombing that Russian authorities cited as a reason to renew their military campaign in Chechnya.
Four other men received lighter sentences.
The September 1999 bombing in Buynaksk--in the Russian republic of Dagestan, which borders Chechnya--left 64 people dead. It was the first of four apartment house bombings around Russia that year. About 300 people were killed.
Russian officials blamed the blasts on guerrilla commanders in rebel Chechnya.
Isa Zainutdinov, 62, and Alisultan Salikhov, 35, were sentenced to life in prison for organizing the attack. Prosecutors said the men were promised $30,000 for the job from Khattab, an Arab warlord operating in Chechnya who goes by one name.
The court found Magomed Magomadov, 45, and Abdulkadyr Abdulkadyrov, 41, guilty of assisting in the crime and sentenced them to nine years. Makhach Abdusamedov, 33, and Zainutdin Zainutdinov, 31, Isa Zainutdinov’s son, received three-year sentences but were given amnesty and freed.
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