Austria convicts three men over death of exile who tried to bring Kremlin-backed Chechen leader to court on torture charges
Three Chechen men have been convicted in Austria for their role in an exile's death during a botched kidnapping that authorities allege was ordered by Chechnya's president, Ramzan Kadyrov.
Umar Israilov, 27, was shot dead outside his Vienna flat in January 2009. The suspected gunman has fled the country, prosecutors have said.
Austrian investigators have said they believed – mostly based on circumstantial evidence – that Kadyrov ordered a kidnapping of Israilov that went fatally awry.
Kadyrov's spokesman, Alvi Karimov, has denied the president's involvement in the murder, which followed Israilov's attempt to bring the Kremlin-backed leader before the European court of human rights on torture charges.
The Vienna court on Wednesday handed three men sentences of life, 19 years and 16 years, the Austria Press Agency reported.
Prosecutors had demanded life sentences for Chechnya-born Otto Kaltenbrunner, Suleiman Dadayev and Turpal Ali Yesherkayev on charges of abetting murder, acting as a foreign agent and conspiracy. The defendants' lawyers had called for acquittals.
The three men were also ordered to pay damages of €25,000 (£22,000) to Israilov's family.
The court's attempts to get Kadyrov to testify via video link came to nothing.
"It is up to you whether you will allow political murders to take place in Austria," the prosecutor Leopold Bien told the jury.
Amnesty International's Heinz Patzelt welcomed the verdict and appealed to Russia to follow up on the case, noting the court had made clear "the people in the background are to be sought abroad and that this is a political contract murder."
Chechnya remains volatile a decade after Moscow drove separatists out of power in the second of two wars. The Kremlin credits Kadyrov – who fought against Russia in the first war but then switched sides – with maintaining security in the region.
But rights activists say that in return for relative stability the Kremlin turns a blind eye to Kadyrov's heavy-handed rule and torture at home and abroad, accusations he has denied.
Dubai police have accused an adviser to Kadyrov, Adam Delimkhanov, of masterminding the March 2009 killing of a Chechen, Sulim Yamadayev, in the emirate, which he denied.
Yamadayev's brother Isa has accused Kadyrov of the killing, as well as of orchestrating the 2008 murder of his other brother Ruslan, though Isa has since made peace with Kadyrov.