Two people convicted of attacking Pskov paratroopers refused to admit guilt.

The court sentenced Arslan Taushev and Rasul Koshmanbetov to lengthy prison terms, finding them to be involved in the 2000 attack on Pskov paratroopers in Chechnya. The defendants denied their guilt.

"Caucasian Knot" wrote that in 2018, the Prosecutor General's Office announced that Arslan Taushev and Rasul Koshmanbetov, who are serving sentences for involvement with militants, were accused of attacking military personnel in 2000. The defendants stated that the indictment was based on the testimony of a single secret witness. Koshmanbetov stated that his crime was that he studied at the Islamic Institute of the Chechen Republic "Caucasus" and that he did not personally participate in any military clashes. They asked the Supreme Court of Chechnya to overturn the decision to return the case to the prosecutor's office, but the court denied the request.

The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don announced the verdict in the case of the attack on the Pskov paratroopers.

According to the investigation and the court, the defendants Arslan Taushev and Rasul Koshmanbetov joined an armed group called the "Nogai Jamaat," which was part of a united armed gang led by Basayev and Khattab, and took part in its activities. In February 2000, in connection with the offensive military operations conducted by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation, the leaders of the gang, Basayev and Khattab, decided to relocate it to the Vedensky district of the Chechen Republic. During this maneuver, on February 29, 2000, gang members discovered servicemen of the 6th company of one of the military units of the Airborne Forces. Between approximately 2:00 PM on February 29 and 6:00 AM on March 1, 2000, Taushev, Koshmanbetov and other members of the armed group, armed with various types of firearms, ammunition, explosive devices, explosives and communications equipment, the roles of which were distributed among themselves by the gang leaders, carried out an attack on the servicemen. Taushev and Koshmanbetov fired multiple aimed shots from firearms they each had at military personnel, the court press service reported today.

At the court hearing, Taushev and Koshmanbetov pleaded not guilty to the charges.  
According to the court's verdict, the defendants were found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment in a maximum-security penal colony for 23 years for Taushev and 24 years for Koshmanbetov.

40-year-old Rasul Koshmanbetov is a native of the Kizlyar district of Dagestan, and 53-year-old Arslan Taushev is from the village of Shelkovskaya in the Naursky district of Chechnya, according to data on the Rosfinmonitoring list of extremists and terrorists. where both convicted individuals are listed.

The witnesses are the same everywhere. Five witnesses are usually called.

Criminal cases of involvement in the Basayev and Khattab gangs are similar and often falsified, lawyer Narine Ayrapetyan told the "Caucasian Knot." "The witnesses are the same everywhere. Five witnesses are usually called – three secret witnesses and two open witnesses," she said.

Ayrapetyan emphasized that cases are also fabricated against innocent people. "When people weren't involved, but are threatened, including with torture, others are forced to testify against them. For example, one of my clients, who is serving a sentence in the Ulyanovsk region, told me that he was being pressured to testify about the events of 1999 against people he had never met," the lawyer said.

In 2019, Vladimir Putin signed a law granting militiamen from Dagestan who fought against militants in 1999 the status of combat veterans, entitlement to monthly payments and financial benefits. The list of applicants included about 28,000 people, but only 520 received certificates, and most of those who actually fought were not included, members of veterans' organizations stated in December 2020.