Five participants in pogrom at Russian airport sentenced to up to nine years in prison — Novaya Gazeta Europe

A court in Russia's southern Krasnodar region has sentenced five men involved in violent riots at Makhachkala airport in October to prison terms ranging from six to nine years, the court's press office reported on Friday.

Rabadan Radzhabov was sentenced to nine years in prison, Magomed Omaraskhabov to six and a half years, while Anvarbek Ataev, Islam Ibragimov and Salik Ramazanov were sentenced to six years and four months in prison.

All five were found guilty of participating in the violent riots, while Radzhabov was additionally found guilty of violence against a representative of the authorities. All men pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

This was the first trial against participants in the October 29 pogrom in Makhachkala, the capital of the predominantly Muslim Republic of Dagestan in the North Caucasus, in which a mob overran the airport in search of “refugees from Israel”.

Amid rising tensions following the October 7 Hamas attacks and Israel's subsequent response in the Gaza Strip, a mob took control of the airport terminal, began checking passengers' IDs and ransacking the building, before entering the runway where they attempted to board a plane that had just landed from Tel Aviv.