Popular Russian politician gets 22 years in jail for having business rivals killed
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Former Russian governor Sergei Furgal insists the charges against him were politically motivated.
PHOTO: AFP
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KRASNOGORSK, Russia – Popular regional politician Sergei Furgal was sentenced by a Russian court to 22 years in prison on Friday after it found him guilty of attempted murder and ordering the contract killing of his business rivals.
Furgal denied the charges, which related to alleged crimes from 2004 and 2005. Speaking at the court outside Moscow, his lawyers said they would appeal the sentencing and seek his acquittal.
Furgal, 52, was arrested in July 2020
His detention sparked a wave of large protests in the region, with tens of thousands of locals coming out onto the streets for weeks in his support. His backers said the charges were politically motivated, to punish him for taking too independent a line from Moscow.
Representing the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, Furgal won a surprise election victory in 2018, when he rode a wave of anti-Moscow sentiment to oust a sitting pro-Kremlin governor - a shock result in Russia’s tightly controlled electoral system.
President Vladimir Putin fired Furgal days after his arrest in 2020, citing “loss of trust”, and installed a more pro-Moscow figure in his place. REUTERS
