MOSCOW. June 6 (Interfax) - Four people who were members of the gang led by Shamil Basayev and Khattab were given lengthy prison terms for their role in the 2000 attack on Pskov paratroopers in Chechnya's Shatoi district, the press center of the Federal Security Service (FSB) said.
"The evidence that was gathered as part of joint work with the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation irrefutably proves the participation in that crime of Russian citizens Ilgiz Mukhametgaliyev, born in 1973, Mukhamedvali Shaikhutdinov, born in 1976, Khaidar Razzakov, born in 1967, and Ilgam Gumerov, born in 1966, who were not punished for that under criminal law," the press center said in a statement seen by Interfax on Friday.
The men were detained and taken to a preliminary investigation agency in April 2022, the FSB said.
The four were charged with banditry, armed mutiny, and an attempt on servicemen's life. They were remanded in custody as a restraining measure, it said.
The Southern District Military Court convicted Mukhametgaliyev, Shaikhutdinov, Razzakov and Gumerov and "gave them sentences ranging from 13 to 24 years in a high-security correctional facility," it said.
Russian Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko told journalists that on February 29, 2000, residents of Russia's internal republic of Tatarstan Gumerov, Mukhametgaliyev, Razzakov and Shaikhutdinov, "acting within the armed gang jointly led by Basayev and Khattab, took part in the attack on troops from the 6th Company of the 104th Regiment of the 76th Pskov Airborne Forces Division in a mountainous and woody area near the Ulus-Kert village in the Shatoi district of Chechnya."
"They staged the attack from three directions. Gumerov, Mukhametgaliyev, Razzakov and Shaikhutdinov, having taken their positions, fired Kalashnikov assault rifles, targeting the servicemen," Petrenko said.
The assault, which lasted until the early hours of March 1, 2000, claimed the lives of 84 Pskov paratroopers. Another four were wounded.