MOSCOW, September 28The First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction rejected the defense's appeals against the verdict of the Moscow City Court and approved life sentences for former senator Rauf Arashukov and his father Raul in the murder case, said lawyer Vladimir Postanyuk.
“The court left the verdict unchanged,” said Raul Arashukova’s lawyer.
Postanyuk handed over the recordings of the defendants' final statements. Father and son continue to insist on their innocence, and Arashukov Sr. noted that “no matter how dark the night is, the dawn still comes.”
On December 27, the Moscow City Court sentenced the Arashukovs to life imprisonment, the other four defendants received sentences ranging from 5 to 22 years. The jury found the Arashukovs guilty of organizing the murders of the deputy chairman of the Adeghe-Khese youth movement, Aslan Zhukov, and the adviser to the President of Karachay-Cherkessia, Fral Shebzukhov, as well as organizing a criminal community and participating in it. In addition, Raul Arashukov was found guilty of stealing more than 4.4 billion rubles from Gazprom structures in southern Russia.
While the trial was ongoing, one of the defendants, former investigator Andrei Filippov, had already served his sentence, taking into account the time spent in the pre-trial detention center, and will soon be released.