A court in Munich convicted a Russian today for planning the murder of an exiled Chechen dissident on the orders of Ramzan Kadyrov's relative.
The court sentenced Valid D. to 10 years in prison and confiscated his car. He was convicted of consenting to murder, preparing a serious act of violence and violating the law on weapons.
The judges found that Kadyrov's cousin commissioned him to kill the dissident Mohmad Abdurahmanov, who lives in Germany. They said the goal was to silence Abdurahmanov's older brother, a prominent opponent of the Chechen government who lives in Sweden and was already targeted there.
The court found that the murder was ordered between March and June 2020, the German news agency DPA reported. The court's announcement states that the accused charged another Chechen who was a witness at the trial with this task.
The witness said that at first he pretended to agree to carry out the plan, and he came to Germany as an asylum seeker. He then revealed the plan to another person at his refugee shelter and informed Abdurahmanov and his brother about the murder plan in a phone conversation in December 2020. The suspect was arrested in January 2021 after the target tipped off the police.
Presiding judge Kristof Wisner described the plan as "an order by the Chechen regime to kill" and "with the knowledge and approval" of Kadyrov.
The Kremlin is relying on Kadyrov to keep the North Caucasus region stable after two devastating separatist wars. International human rights groups have accused the Kadyrov regime of extrajudicial killings, torture and kidnapping of dissidents.
Bonus video:
