Muslim Society No. 3 Sentencing
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This document reports on the sentencing of Khyzyr Salpagarov, Ramazan Gochiyayev, and Eduard Kharatokov, leaders of the 'Muslim Society No. 3' extremist group, by the Stavropol Regional Court. The group, established in the mid-1990s, allegedly trained in Khattab’s sabotage camps in Chechnya with the intent to seize power in Karachay-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria. Crucially, the document identifies Achemez Gochiyayev, a leader of the society who remains at large, as the primary suspect in the 1999 Moscow residential building bombings. The defendants were sentenced to terms ranging from 15 to 23 years for terrorism and forming illegal armed groups, despite a jury dropping the specific charge of preparing for a violent seizure of power. The trial followed a series of terrorist attacks in southern Russia between late 2000 and early 2001.