A defendant in the case against former Dagestan Sports Minister Magomedov has been convicted.

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A court in Dagestan has convicted a local resident of the 2006 murder of Mirza Sirazhudinov, deputy head of the Federal Treasury Department for the Kizilyurt District, and his son. The convicted man is a defendant in the case against Magomed Magomedov, the former head of the republic's Ministry of Sports.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," Magomed Magomedov, the former Minister of Physical Culture and Sports of Dagestan, is accused of double murder, attempted murder (Part 2 of Article 105 and Part 3 of Article 30, Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code), creating a gang (Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code), illegal arms trafficking (Part 4 of Article 222 of the Criminal Code), and embezzlement using official position (Part 4 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code). Seven other people are also defendants in his case. Kamil Abdulsamadov, Gamzat Shikhabudinov, Temirkhan Chachanov, and Magomed Zagidov are accused of banditry, illegal arms trafficking, murder, and attempted murder, while three former employees of the regional Ministry of Sports, Olga Gorlova, Khalitbeg Makhachev, and Magomed Abdulkerimov, are accused of embezzlement. All have pleaded not guilty.

The Supreme Court of Dagestan sentenced a local resident to 9.5 years in a maximum-security penal colony for the murder of two people, including a young child, and attempted murder, RIA Novosti reported on May 19.

The court found that the defendant was a member of an armed group formed in 2005. On the evening of August 3, 2006, near a café on the Kavkaz federal highway in the Kizilyurt district, he and his accomplices attacked a man believed to be involved in the assassination attempt on the group's leader. As a result, the victim and his young son were killed, and another man was wounded.

The defendant entered into a pre-trial agreement and contributed to the investigation of the crime and the identification of his accomplices, including the group's leader. The court dismissed the criminal prosecution for banditry and illegal arms trafficking due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. Furthermore, the court took into account mitigating circumstances (a self-incrimination, active cooperation with the investigation, and a first-degree disability) when sentencing.

As a reminder, in his testimony, Magomedov stated that he had no motive for the murder of Mirza Sirazhudinov. At the same time, Sirazhudinov, according to Magomedov, financed the then head of Dagestan's Kizilyurt district, Abdurakhman Gadzhiev, with whom Magomedov had a conflict while serving as head of the municipal district tax inspectorate. Magomedov accused the official of collaborating with criminals and extorting money from businessmen, after which an assassination attempt was staged that resulted in the murder of Magomedov's nephew. In November 2006, Abdurakhman Gadzhiev, who ordered the crime, received an 18-year prison sentence, while Magomed Mitoyev, who organized it, received a nine-year prison sentence.