Defence of convicts of Ruslan Yamadaev's murder plan to challenge the verdict

Advocates of those defendants who were sentenced today on charges of murdering Hero of Russia Ruslan Yamadaev, a former State Duma Deputy, plan to file, within their legitimate 10 days, an appeal against the verdict. They assert that witnesses' evidences were unreliable, and the case materials were falsified.

"In his verdict, the judge didn't even mention the defence's arguments and didn't explain why he had ignored them," Zaur Samkhanov, Khatsuev's advocate, told in his interview to the "Gazeta.Ru".

According to the advocate, his client had confessed only of keeping the pistol, while examination found that this pistol was not used in any of the murders.

Mr Samkhanov also believes that the witness, who had been kept secret and acted under pseudonym of Dmitriev, gave "testimonies wanted by the investigation."We proved at the trial that he had failed to correctly describe the scene, but the verdict gave no assessment of this evidence," said the defender, who forecasted the chances of appealing against the verdict as "high".

The convicts' relatives also insist on their innocence.

In his turn, the prosecutor said he was pleased with the sentence and would not challenge it. Isa Yamadaev, casualty's brother, said that he had expected a more severe sentence, but he would not appeal against it, the "Rosbalt" reports.

When asked about possible "customers" of the murder, among whom earlier Isa Yamadaev had named also the head of Chechnya, Isa said that "in the context of recent reconciliation with Ramzan Kadyrov," he would not like to give comments on possible "customers". According to his story, further investigation will reveal everything.

One of operative agents gave details of the investigation. According to his story, the investigation did not repeat the mistake made in the investigating into journalist Anna Politkovskaya's murder.

"Then, the premature arrest of suspects led to the fact that the gunman managed to escape, while at the trail there was not enough evidence. In the case of Yamadaev's murder, suspects were established fairly quickly, but we decided no to place them in custody. Dadaev, Hatsuev and Isaev were shadowed, their telephone were tapped. And when they gave out their involvement in the crime themselves, they were detained," said the source.

According to his story, Elim-Pasha Hatsuev proved to be the "weakest link" in the chain of murders. The trial listened to the record, where he talked to some friend named Daud. During the call Khatsuev said that should Ruslan Yamadaev "had observed the uraza, he would have been still alive." The investigation believes that the suspect meant that Ruslan was smoking during the time of fasting and opened the window of his armoured car, which gave the gunman a chance to move his machinegun inside and open fire.

During the same conversation, Elim-Pasha said that "he had rendered a service to Ramzan from Khosi-Yurt (Tsentoroi, Kadyrov's family village, - note of the "Caucasian Knot").

Immediately after arrest Khatsuev said "not for protocol" that he had been hired only to spy on Ruslan Yamadaev, and when on September 24, 2008, his partner Dadaev shot the Hero of Russia dead, it was, as he said, his great surprise.