Two Militants Sentenced in Russia for 2000 Chechnya Attack on Paratroopers

A court in Russia’s Chechen Republic sentenced two militants to 14 and 15 years in prison each for their role in an attack on Russian paratroopers during the anti-separatist campaign 16 years ago, the Russian Security Council said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The March 1, 2000, attack on Pskov-based paratroopers from the Airborne Forces’ 6th Company left 84 soldiers killed and only six survivors in what was the Russian military’s highest human losses during the August 1999-May 2000 campaign.

“The court’s verdict sentences [Suleiman] Ukheid and [Alaudin] Menlibayev to 14 and 15 years of imprisonment in a maximum security penal colony,” the Security Council said in a statement.

It noted that Ukheid was a Libyan citizen and Menlibayev a native o the city of Stavropol.