Germany puts Russian man on trial over plot to kill dissident

Legitimate D is accused of plotting to kill a dissident from Russia’s Chechen Republic on the orders of the area’s chief.

A court docket room in Munich, Germany [File: Matthias Schrader/AP]

Germany has put a Russian man on trial over a plot to kill a dissident from Russia’s Chechen Republic on the orders of the area’s chief Ramzan Kadyrov.

The trial was launched on Wednesday in Munich in opposition to Legitimate D who was arrested on January 1 final yr and has since been in pre-trial detention.

He's accused of planning the homicide commissioned by the state, finishing up capturing workout routines with the meant hitman and spying on the goal.

“A member of the safety equipment of Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov commissioned the accused Legitimate D with the logistical organisation of the killing of an opposition member” within the first half of 2020, prosecutors mentioned.

In keeping with German media reviews, the goal was Mokhmad Abdurakhmanov, the brother of exiled Chechen blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov, who lives in Sweden.

“The state-ordered killing was meant, specifically, to silence the brother of the focused sufferer,” the prosecutors mentioned.

The plot

Legitimate D is accused of procuring a weapon, deciding on a hitman to hold out the homicide and arranging for him to be delivered to Germany.

He additionally allegedly spied on the goal and his dwelling in search of an acceptable crime scene, in addition to finishing up capturing workout routines with the meant killer.

The person picked to hold out the homicide claims to have accepted the supply solely out of worry of reprisals, the prosecutors mentioned.

Germany and Russia have been at odds over time over a number of points, together with cyberattacks and a string of espionage instances that Berlin has blamed on Moscow.

A German court docket in December final yr sentenced a Russian man to life in jail for capturing useless a former Chechen commander in a Berlin park in broad daylight, a homicide prosecutors say was ordered by Moscow.

Kadyrov, a former rebel-turned-Kremlin-ally, has given his backing for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine, sending his fighters to the nation.

The Munich court docket has set 39 listening to dates as much as the top of December for Legitimate D’s trial.