The Vienna process is completed

Chechen emissaries received a long time for the murder of a defector Umar Israilov in the capital of Austria

In the criminal court of Vienna, a verdict was sentenced in the case of the murder of the Chechen refugee Umar Israilov. The case was listed for more than six months. People who organized and carried out this murder received tremendous terms - from 16 years of imprisonment to ...

In the criminal court of Vienna, a verdict was sentenced in the case of the murder of the Chechen refugee Umar Israilov. The case was listed for more than six months. People who organized and carried out this murder received tremendous terms - from 16 years of imprisonment to life. The process was unique not only for Austria, where this kind of daring crimes occur infrequently. It was of great importance for Russia: for the first time within the framework of the judicial investigation (albeit not Russian, but still official), such things said about Chechnya and its leadership. Here is a brief plot of the entire judicial investigation, as well as what preceded him.

Umar Israilov, a former militant who was captured and subsequently, who became the bodyguard of the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, fled from Russia in 2004. Having moved to Europe, he filed a lawsuit in the Strasbourg court, in which he accused Kadyrov of creating a secret prison system, as well as in inhuman torture of the prisoners there. Israilov described in detail everything that they did with him, and later with his father in one of these prisons.

Since 2006, Israilov and his family lived in Vienna. In the spring of 2008, Chechen Arthur Kurmakaev arrived in Vienna, he had a meeting with Umar Israilov. As it is now evident from the case file, Kurmakaev arrived on the direct assignment of Kadyrov in order to convince Israilov to recall the lawsuit from Strasbourg, and the world to settle the conflict with the head of Chechnya. Allegedly, Kadyrov guaranteed Israilov security and work if he returned. Kurmakaev also informed the fugitive Chechens that if he was stubborn, that is, people who were “sent to kill”. Israilov refused the proposal, and soon Kurmakaev himself turned to the Austrian law enforcement officers with all this story: either he hoped to obtain a refugee status, or anticipated the exposure. Having made a statement, Kurmakaev asked for asylum in Austria, but was soon deported for violation of migration legislation. Returning to Russia, he renounced the words that the Austrian police now present in court.

And Umar Israilov a few months after this meeting was killed in broad daylight, at the exit of the supermarket in the sleeping area. They tried to kidnap him, but the attempt fell off.

During the murder investigation, three Chechens were detained. Otto Caltenbrunner (nee Ruslan Edilov, a refugee who replaced the name in the receipt of citizenship), according to the investigation, had a connection with the authorities of Chechnya and coordinated the actions of the abduction of Israilov. Two other refugees - Muslim Dadaev and Turpal Ali Eshurkaev - directly carried out a failed operation to abduct Israilov. At the scene of the crime, another native of Chechnya was also present - the league Bogatyrev. It was he, as investigators believe, who shot Israilov, escaping after that to Russia. Today he openly lives in Chechnya, despite all the attempts of the Austrian Themis to scratch him for justice.

Nothing happened with other Russians, whom the Vienna Criminal Court wanted to see as witnesses (and the court wanted to see Ramzan Kadyrov himself, with which he even turned to the Seagull, to which the Russian prosecutor’s office responded in silence, making it clear that it was not responding to stupid letters). The process initially provoked a tremendous interest in Austrian society. The hearing took place in a special spacious hall, but even there there was nowhere to fall - before that, many people came to look at this detective story. Yes, in the newspapers they wrote just that the Chechen detective.

The figure of Ali Israilov, the father of the murdered Umar, aroused interest. He boldly talked about the torture experienced by him in the Chechen camp, where he got after his son managed to escape from Russia. He flew from Norway, where he lives now, at every court hearing, silently and impassively monitored the course of the process - so that no one could imagine what was happening inside him. He suffered in Chechen, silently. Of course, for Austria, such a thing was new. Previously, with such a scope, the maniac Joseph Fritzl, who had imprisoned his own daughter in the basement, was tried with such a scale. Things with sexual subtext are invariably enjoying the attention of the layman. But this is also boring. And here - war, underground prison, torture, flight, revenge ... Of course, reporters were looking forward to the appearance of the legendary Chechen Ramzan Kadyrov in the courtroom.

Gradually, however, it became clear that neither Kadyrov nor Russian justice as a whole intend to take any part in the celebration of Austrian justice. And interest in the process faded. The newspapers appeared in the newspapers about the course of the next session, and on the eve of the sentencing in the news, the stories were twisted about other court hearings: meteorologist Yorg Kahelman, Balagur and favorite of the German -speaking viewers, is accused of rape under aggravating circumstances. And in the morning of the sentence to the murderers of the Chechen refugee, the Central Austrian newspapers came out with Kahalman in the first lanes (the weather forecaster, by the way, justified).

The meeting room in the case of the murder of Israilov was a little bitter, although the press still pulled up.

The jury college, which at first consisted of 12 people, dried up to nine: someone was ill, probably, chronically. Others had their own good reasons. But these nine were enough: according to the Austrian law, eight jurors would be enough for the verdict.

The debate began: all participants in the process presented their position in the case. The prosecutor, who was dry and pedantically setting out the plot of the case, considered the guilt of the defendants proven and requested a lifelong for Caltenbrunner, for Eshurkaev and Dadaev - from ten to twenty years of imprisonment. In a similar way, Nadia Lorenz, a lawyer of the victims, also took place. After her, the word was given to Rudolf Mayer, Caltenbrunner's lawyer. The performance of Mr. Mayer was emotionally and artistic. He frantically gestured, threw the scribbled pieces of paper on the table. Then he suddenly calmed down, switching to a insinuating whisper, then, on the contrary, shouted, pointing to his jurors at his client. His speech was simple, he did not press on the subtleties of law enforcement practice. The meaning of Mayer’s speech as a whole was that there was no organized crime, because what happened looked frankly stupid. What is the fact that the murderer Eshurkaev during the “operation” for convenience tugged trousers into white socks. So he was captured by all street cameras, and it was this detail that all witnesses remembered.

“I have been working in court for a long time, I know what such crimes look like,” said Mayer. - 17 years ago, a Georgian businessman was killed in Vienna. So then the trunk of Killer was rolled up in gypsum! As if his hand is broken, understand? And you look at this "group". What organization can we talk about? Who will hire them?

Mayer's performance was successful. The judges smiled, the jury giggled. Even the guards grinned. Journalists, they generally rolled with laughter.

And yet, in the aggregate of the performance of the prosecutor and lawyers, they painted a terrible picture: an organized power structure representing the interests of the third party (and this is not even the Russian Federation) operates in Austria and other European states. This structure is ready to fight for its interest not only in a word, but also a bullet, if necessary.

Dadaev and Eshurkaev refused the last word. Caltenbrunner said that he was hoping for a reasonable decision of the judges.

The decision took place already in a dark. Many Chechens came to the announcement, who were not previously visible at the process. Nearby were those who represent the interests of independent Ichkeria in Austria, and those who were entrenched in the glory of the Kadyrov’s envoy in Austria. The jury court was amazing. The jury answered all the questions posed before them and exposing criminals in the affirmative. Otto Caltenbrunner was found guilty of organizing a criminal community, trying to transfer a citizen to the authorities of another state, as well as in complicity in the murder. Together, he received a life imprisonment.

Muslim Dadaev received a deadline for the same articles, with the exception of the organization of a criminal community. When making a sentence, the court took into account that Dadaev had other conditional terms: for offenses that were not related to this murder. As a result, Dadaev was awarded 19 years and 2 months, taking into account the time that he had already conducted in prison. Turpal Ali Eshurkaev received 16 years and 40 days of imprisonment for complicity in the murder and an attempt to transfer a citizen to the authorities of another state.

The judge was on duty explained to the accused the opportunity to appeal this decision. The defense, which made a lot of efforts to prove the jury that they were small bipods in front of them, and real criminals did not come to court, looked frustrated.

- Dr. Mayer, what do you think, if those witnesses, the presence of which Russia did not provide at the trial, would this affect the verdict pronounced today? I asked.

“It's hard to say,” Mayer smiled. - We do not fully know what exactly affects the decision of the jury.

The victim, on the contrary, looked satisfied. Although here - not without reservation.

“The best punishment for all these criminals would be death,” Ali Israilov, the father of the murdered Umar, said in the end to the public. - Blood revenge, which existed, exists and will exist in Chechnya while the world is standing. If so, then these people would think before going to their crime.

The translators did not translate this to a lawyer and sympathetic to the Israilov family.