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Deputy of People’s council and his accomplices found guilty of setting up criminal community and committing series of serious and very serious crimes in Dagestan

A court has recognized the evidence gathered by investigating bodies of the Russia’s Investigative Committee for Dagestan sufficient to convict deputy of Dagestani People’s Assembly Magomed Magomedov, chairman of village deputies’ assembly of the village of Dubki, Kazbek District Sirazhudin Abakarov and former operative officer of Makhachkala Office of the Russian Ministry of the Interior Magomed Gadzhiyev. Depending on the role of each one they were found guilty of over 20 counts of crimes, including setting up and membership in a criminal group (article 210 of the RF Penal Code) which acted in Dagestan for over 2 years, extortion (article 163) and fraud on a very large scale (article 159), organization and participation in mass riots (article 212), money laundering (article 174.1), purchase or selling of the ill-gotten property (article 175) and other crimes.

The court and investigators have revealed that, in December 2011, Magomedov set up a criminal group, which included his brother – a deputy of deputies’ assembly of Khunzakh District Ruslan Magomedov, Sirazhudin Abakarov, acting director of branch office of Vitas Bank in the city of Makhachkala Murad Kasiakhmedov, Bagomed Gadzhiyev and other relatives of the deputy, including a police officer (11 members). The aim of the criminal group was to commit serious and very serious crimes, in order to gain financial and other material profit, including getting ownership of real estates and money by frauds, extortion and robbery and money laundering.

The group had strict hierarchy and its members developed schemes to get illegal profit, misappropriate property and money of citizens and companies, who were clients of Vitas Bank. After the said bank had been recognized bankrupt, the accused by fraud misappropriated over 100 million rubles, making forged documents that the money had been given to be accounted for to a bank employee.

In addition, deputy Magomedov together with his brother Ruslan Magomedov and Sirazhudin Abakarov extorted from a local businessman over 24 million rubles on the pretext of paying interest on credit received by the victim in the bankrupt Vitas-Bank. Moreover, the perpetrators managed to illegally register the rights of ownership to assets, the documents on which the victims had submitted as a pledge to the bank.

Between 2011 and May 2013, the members of the group by deceit obtained ownership of property of citizens and businessmen worth over 40 million rubles.

In March last year during a special operation in the village of Semender in the city of Makhachkala to neutralize the members of the Gimrinskaya insurgent terrorist group, who worked closely with the said criminal community, Ruslan Magomedov and Sirazhudin Abakarov with the participation of their followers, organized mass riots on one of central streets in Makhachkala in order to fight back the law enforcement officers.

During the mass riots the participants burned tires, blocked traffic and used force against police officers who tried to stop the perpetrators.

It should be noted that the investigation was controlled by the senior officials of the Russia’s Investigative Committee.

The court has sentenced Magomedov to 16 years to be served in a maximum-security penal colony, Gdzhiyev to 6.5 years and Abakarov to 6 years in prison.

One of the gang members Murad Kaziakhmedov was sentenced to 4 years in prison.