A Moscow court sentenced a former senator in the Russian parliament's upper house to life behind bars on terrorism and murder charges on Tuesday.
Igor Izmestyev, ex-senator from the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, was detained in January 2007. He was charged with being part of a gang that committed over 12 murders.
The so-called Kingisepp gang was set up in 1992 in Moscow on the basis of a private security firm led by a citizen of Kingisepp, a town near St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city.
Prosecutors said Izmestyev was also charged with organizing a terrorist attack in the republic's capital Ufa which left two men dead and injured another three in November 2003.
The former lawmaker Izmestyev was suspected of the attempted murder of Ural Rakhimov, the son of Murtaza Rakhimov, the former president of the southwest Urals republic.
The court also fined Izmestyev 4.5 million rubles ($150,000).
Izmestyev's lawyer called the verdict "unreasonably cruel" and said that he would appeal.
The leaders of the gang, Sergei Finagin and Imran Ilyasov, have been convicted to 23 and 20 years in prison, respectively. Eight other gang members will serve from six to 18 years in jail.
MOSCOW, December 28 (RIA Novosti)
