Ex-Russian senator sentenced to life in prison
The Moscow City Court on Tuesday sentenced former Russian senator Rauf Arashukov and his father, Raul, to life imprisonment in a high-profile murder case. The former lawmaker was detained in 2019 while attending a parliamentary session.
The prosecutor general at the time, Yury Chaika, and the head of the Investigative Committee, Aleksandr Bastrykin, personally led the detention. The other senators voted to strip him of parliamentary immunity during the same session.
“The court does not see any obstacles to sentencing Raul and Rauf Arashukov to life in prison,” the judge said on Tuesday. The jury had already found the ex-senator and his father guilty of organizing the murders of the deputy head of a local youth movement, Aslan Zhukov, and an aide to the leader of Russia’s southern Karachay-Cherkessia region, Fral Shebzukhov.
Only one juror found that the guilt of the two men had not been sufficiently proven and that they deserved leniency, according to the RIA Novosti news agency. Raul Arashukov was additionally found guilty of stealing over 4.4 billion rubles ($62 million) from Russian energy giant Gazprom. In September, the jury also found both men guilty of forming a criminal group with the goal of stealing 30 billion rubles ($425 million) from the company.
The court seized several of the Arashukovs’ cars, including a Bentley and a rare Soviet Chaika. A total of 18 other suspects were put on trial in connection with the case.
Both men denied their guilt. Rauf, 36, was described as Russia’s youngest senator during his tenure between 2016 and 2019, representing Karachay-Cherkessia Region. His father Raul was once a gas mogul.
Arashukov Jr. was exposed as one of the organizers of a contract killing after a hitman from a group that carried out one of the murders turned himself in back in August 2018. The senator’s arrest kick-started what ended up being a large-scale police operation involving searches in several Russian cities.
