Ordered murders?: Ex-Russian governor sentenced to 22 years in prison

commissioned murders?
Former Russian governor sentenced to 22 years in prison

Murderer or victim of the Kremlin? The Russian politician Sergei Furgal is sentenced to a long prison term. The court accuses him of having ordered the killing of two businessmen. However, his supporters see the verdict as politically motivated.

A court in the Moscow region has sentenced the former governor of the eastern Khabarovsk region, Sergei Furgal, to 22 years in prison. Furgal was charged, among other things, with ordering two murders almost 20 years ago, according to a court spokeswoman. The convict has to serve his sentence in a strict penal colony, Russian news agencies reported. He protested his innocence. His lawyer Boris Koemyakin told the Ria-Novosti agency that his client would appeal.

From 2018 to 2020 Furgal was governor of the large Khabarovsk region in eastern Russia near the border with China, where he was very popular. The candidate of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) clearly defeated a candidate of the party of Russian President Vladimir Putin in an election. At the time, the result was interpreted as an expression of protest against Putin’s decision to raise the retirement age. For the Kremlin, Furgal was considered a nuisance.

After the governor was arrested on July 9, 2020, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Khabarovsk for weeks. Smaller rallies also took place in the cities of Komsomolsk and Vladivostok.

Furgal was charged with ordering the killing of two businessmen and organizing an attack on a businessman between 2004 and 2005. Three men suspected of working with him have been sentenced to between nine and a half and 21 years in prison, Russian news agencies reported. Furgal’s supporters see the verdict as politically motivated.

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