A former bodyguard for a Chechen clan locked in a feud with President Ramzan Kadyrov has been given a prison sentence for an assassination attempt that he claimed was ordered by Kadyrov.
The Moscow Region Court on Thursday sentenced Khavazhi Yusupov to 8 1/2 years in prison for attempting to murder Isa Yamadayev and for illegal arms possession, the court and the Investigative Committee said in statements.
The court did not disclose any further details from the closed trial, but the Investigative Committee said it was opening a separate case against those who ordered the killing.
It did not name any suspects.
Yamadayev has accused Kadyrov of ordering a botched assassination attempt on him in July 2009, when an intruder shot at him in his apartment in the Moscow region town of Odyntsovo.
In April, Yamadayev published an open letter in which he identified Yusupov, who worked as a bodyguard for his family, as the intruder.
Some media have reported that Yamadayev survived because Federal Security Service agents had replaced Yusupov's ammunition with blanks.
To back up his claim, Yamadayev's letter was accompanied by a video purportedly showing Yusupov being questioned by investigators.
In the footage, the ex-bodyguard claims that Kadyrov and his adviser, Shaa Turlayev, hired him to shoot Yamadayev, threatening to have his whole family killed if he did not comply.
He also recalls that Kadyrov prided himself on ordering the murder of Sulim and Ruslan Yamadayev, Isa's brothers, who were assassinated in 2008 and 2009.
Both Kadyrov and Turlayev have vehemently denied the allegation. Kadyrov's press office has suggested that the incident was staged.
Yamadayev said he was satisfied by the verdict although he pitied the would-be assassin. "My main task now is to see those who ordered [the crime] behind bars," he told the Rosbalt news service.
Before Thursday's ruling, Yusupov fully admitted his guilt and asked for leniency because he had been threatened. Prosecutors had sought a 10-year sentence, the report said.
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