A military court in Moscow has sentenced Zelimkhan Mazayev, who is wanted in the United Arab Emirates on suspicion of involvement into 2009 killing in Dubai of Sulim Yamadayev, to eight years in prison on a terrorism charge.
The Second Western District Military Court sentenced the 42-year-old Mazayev after finding him guilty of robbery, armed robbery, and financing an Islamic terrorist's trip to Syria in 2014, the Kommersant daily reported on August 4. Since Mazayev has already spent four years in custody, he is eligible to apply for early release later this year.
In 2009, investigators in Dubai said Mazayev was one of 10 individuals who arrived from Russia to assassinate the 35-year-old Yamadayev, a member of a family that at the time was at odds with the authoritarian leader of Russia's Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.
According to U.A.E. authorities, Mazayev shot Yamadayev to death in an underground parking lot of a residential building in Dubai.
Mazayev and others fled the U.A.E. for Russia, while a Tajik citizen and an Iranian national who worked at a stable in Dubai taking care of horses belonging to Kadyrov, were caught and subsequently tried in Dubai for their roles in the murder. Both were sentenced to life in prison for their involvement in the assassination.
In September 2008, Ruslan Yamadayev, a State Duma member and Sulim's brother, was shot dead in Moscow.
A year later, Kadyrov ordered the destruction of a mosque in Chechnya raised to honor the eldest of Yamadayev's brothers, Dzhabrail.
The youngest of Yamadayev's brothers, Isa, has survived several assassination attempts and in 2010 publicly announced that he and Kadyrov had reconciled.