A military court in Moscow has sentenced 12 associates of a notorious gangster from Russia's North Ossetia region in the North Caucasus to prison terms between 12 years and life.
The Prosecutor-General's Office said on August 2 that the members of Aslan Gagiyev's gang were sentenced after the Second Western District Military Court found them guilty of involvement in a series of murders, attempted murders, abductions, and other crimes.
Two of the defendants were handed life sentences, while 10 others were sentenced to prison terms of between 12 years and 20 years.
Gagiyev, aka Dzhako, who is suspected in a string of contract killings, is currently on trial in the southwestern city of Rostov-on-Don. He was extradited by Austria to Moscow in June 2018 after losing a yearslong legal battle.
Gagiyev fled Russia in 2013 after being accused of organizing a criminal gang, banditry, murder, weapons trafficking, and embezzlement.
Russia has accused Gagiyev's gang of murdering 60 people in Moscow, the Moscow region, and North Ossetia in 2004-2014, including the mayor of the city of Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia, as well as the region's former deputy prime minister.
The Russian Investigative Committee said at least 24 of the gang's members had been convicted of crimes, with some receiving life sentences.
International arrest warrants were issued for seven people suspected of being members of the gang, while seven other alleged members of the group were killed between 2010 and 2014 in what officials say were scores being settled between rival groups.
Twelve other alleged members of the gang are currently under investigation.
Gagiyev was arrested at a Vienna train station in January 2015 on an international arrest warrant.
Gagiyev has denied any wrongdoing and called his extradition to Russia politically motivated.