MOSCOW. March 21 (Interfax) - The Moscow District Military Court found Khasan Zakayev guilty of aiding and abetting the hostage-takers during the events known as the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis and sentenced him to 19 years in prison on Tuesday, an Interfax correspondent reported from the courthouse with reference to the court's findings and conclusions.
"[Mr.] Zakayev has been found guilty of attempting to plot an act of terrorism, attempting to kill two or more persons, attempting to seize and hold hostages, and acquiring and transporting explosive substances and sentenced cumulatively to 19 years in a high-security penitentiary," Judge Mikhail Udashkin said in the sentence.
The court also partially granted related civil claims for compensation from Zakayev by ordering that most injured parties will receive a 500,000-ruble compensation each, some others one million rubles each, two million rubles each, and 2.5 million rubles each, and one injured party 4 million rubles.
Svetlana Petrenko, the Russian Investigation Committee's spokesperson, told Interfax in a comment that more than 100 witnesses and complainants had been questioned and a great number of appropriate multidisciplinary studies completed in the course of the inquiry,
"Despite active counteraction on the part of the defendant and his defense team, the investigators have collected enough prosecution evidence to establish Zakayev's guilt in committing serious and especially serious crimes," Petrenko said.
In the course of the trial, Zakayev pleaded guilty in part. He alleged that he wasn't a member of Shamil Basayev's gang and knew nothing of the act of terror being plotted, believing that it was weapons and ammunition and not an explosive device that he was carrying to Moscow.
The defendant told the court that he had been asked to carry ammunition in his car because it was presumed that he wouldn't be stopped at checkpoints, for which he was offered 800 dollars. After he was paid only half of the amount, he said he refused to work further for the perpetrators.
The complainants in the case earlier filed civil claims against Zakayev for a total amount of approximately 100 million rubles, requesting the court to recover the money from the defendant to ensure redress for the victims, the lawyers for the complainants said.
The complainants were unhappy with both how the judicial proceedings and the way in which the case had been investigated, lawyer Igor Zuber said. "During the court hearings, neither the circumstances of the death of every hostage nor the actual cause of their death were identified. Besides, neither the investigators nor the court identified the person who was commanding the rescue operation, or what kind of gas was applied, or who gave the order to use the gas, or how medical aid was provided to the victims," Zuber said, emphasizing that survivors are still suffering from a number of ailments after being exposed to an unknown substance back then.
Zuber maintained that "Russia does not comply with the European Court of Human Rights' decision (in the case of Finogenov and Others v. Russia) in spite of the fact that the case is monitored by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe ".
Zakayev was charged with participation in a criminal organization, preparation of a terrorist attack, complicity in hostage-taking, attempted murder of more than two people, illegal possession of arms, and intentional destruction of someone else's property.
The investigation determined that Zakayev was a member of an organized criminal gang led by Basayev and assisted in plotting a terrorist attack and taking hostages at the Dubrovka Theater Center in Moscow. In particular, he organized transportation to Moscow of the arms and improvised explosive devices used by the terrorists later in 2002, investigators said.
Six accomplices in the hostage-taking were earlier sentenced to lengthy prison terms, while 40 terrorists were killed during the police operation at the Dubrovka Theater Center. Another suspected accomplice, Gerikhan Dudayev, is currently on the international wanted list.
More than 900 people were taken hostage during the Nord-Ost musical performance at the Dubrovka Theater Center on October 23, 2002. They were held captive for three days. The theater building was stormed in the morning on October 26. All the terrorists were killed in the police operation. According to official data, 130 hostages, including ten children, died in the rescue operation.