MOSCOW. June 3 (Interfax) - The Moscow region court has sentenced Khavazhi Yusupov, a native of Russia's internal republic of Chechnya, to eight and a half years in prison on charges of attempted murder of Isa Yamadayev, a brother of Sulim Yamadayev, ex-commander of Chechnya's Vostok (East) battalion, an Interfax correspondent reported.
Yusupov will serve his term in a high security prison, the verdict says. He will also pay 8,345 rubles for his defense lawyer's services.
Yamadayev was in the courtroom when the verdict was being read, accompanied by several armed guards.
He told the press afterwards that he was satisfied with the verdict but noted that those who actually ordered the murder, and not only Yusupov who carried out the order, should also be sentenced.
"All this was written in my open letter [published in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper]," he said.
The victim's defense lawyer Yury Yefimenkov also said that a separate case had been opened in relation to those suspected of having ordered the murder.