MOSCOW. Oct 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Moscow hopes the two Russian citizens convicted in Qatar will be released and return to Russia as soon as possible, Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov said on NTV television on Sunday.
Three Russian embassy employees were arrested in Doha on February 19 on charges of involvement in the murder of Chechen separatist leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. Yandarbiyev was killed in Doha on February 13 when a bomb planted in his car exploded.
One of the detainees was freed and was allowed to leave Qatar on March 24.
Moscow has said on many occasions that the arrests were unfounded and that "neither Russia, nor the Russian citizens detained in Qatar, had anything to do with Yandarbiyev's murder."
At the end of July, a Qatari appeals court upheld the sentence of life imprisonment handed down on the two Russians.
Under Qatari judiciary practice, people sentenced to life imprisonment actually serve a 25-year term.