Russia has committed a political assassination in Germany, a court in Berlin has ruled

A German court has sentenced Russian citizen Vadim Krasikov to life in prison for killing Zelimkhan Hangoshvili, an ethnic Chechen with Georgian citizenship, in a central park in Berlin in August 2019, believing it was a decision by Russian authorities to be liquidated in the German capital.

According to the prosecutor’s office, the order comes from the special services in Moscow and the court considers this to be a particularly serious crime. “Four children lost their father, two relatives – their brother,” the judge said.

“Some media believe that Russia or even Vladimir Putin is on trial here. This is misleading – the only accused is sitting here on the bench. But our goal is to clarify the circumstances of the crime,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters.

The court accepted the prosecution’s thesis that it was not just a murder, but the execution of a “state order for murder on German territory.” Hangoshvili was a field commander of a rebel unit in Chechnya that attacked the Russian military. According to the prosecution, his liquidation was politically motivated.

Hangoshvili was shot dead by a silencer pistol in broad daylight on August 23, 2019, and died on the spot. Police arrested 56-year-old Krasikov a few hours later. The defense insisted that the evidence against him was questionable, and his connection to the Russian secret services had not been proven.

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