US to Sentence Russian Suspect for Planning 2009 Afghan Attack

  07 November 2015    Read: 1109
US to Sentence Russian Suspect for Planning 2009 Afghan Attack
Irek Hamidullin, captured by US forces in 2009 in Afghanistan over suspicions he was a Taliban member, will be sentenced on December 3.
Russian national Irek Hamidullin, captured by US forces in Afghanistan in 2009 over suspicions he was a Taliban member and was planning an attack on US troops, will be sentenced on December 3, local media reported.

US Judge Henry Hudson set the date Friday morning, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Hamidullin’s trial in Richmond, Virginia, was the first time a non-US citizen with no substantial connection to the United States, was taken off a battlefield and brought to trial in the country, the media reported Friday.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement in August that Hamidullin had been convicted by a US federal jury of conspiring to shoot down US helicopters and to kill US and Afghan soldiers as well as of providing material support to terrorists in November 2009. He faces up to life in prison when sentenced.

According to the DOJ, Hamidullin joined the Taliban militant group in 2001 and by 2009 commanded a group of insurgents operating in Afghanistan.

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