Yusup Temerkhanov, a Chechen man who was convicted in the high-profile murder of former Russian Army Colonel Yury Budanov, has died while serving his sentence in a penal colony in Siberia, his lawyer says.
Lawyer Roza Magomedova said on August 3 that her client died in a hospital in Omsk, where he had been rushed with heart problems.
Temerkhanov was convicted in May 2013 of shooting Budanov and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Temerkhanov denied any involvement and pleaded not guilty.
Budanov was killed in Moscow in June 2011, two years after his early release from prison, where he served eight years of a 10-year sentence for the March 2000 kidnapping and killing an 18-year-old Chechen woman, Elza Kungayeva.
Despite his conviction, Budanov enjoyed broad support in Russia. But he was hated by many in Chechnya, including pro-Russian Chechens.