A Chechen man sentenced to life imprisonment Austria A court spokesman said after being convicted of the murder of a Chechen dissident.
Mamikhan Umarov, 43 years old, received political asylum in Austria in 2005. The locals call him Martin Beck. He was found dead from a gunshot wound near Vienna on July 4 last year.
A former police officer Chechnya, Umarov ran a video blog criticizing the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and cooperating with Austrian intelligence.
According to investigators, his murderer was only identified as a 48-year-old Chechen man who had blood from the victim on his left shoe and traces of gunpowder on his hand when he was arrested.
According to a court spokesperson, the defendant pleaded not guilty in the court in Korneuburg in northeastern Austria and vowed to appeal after the sentence was pronounced.
The motive for the crime was not determined, and the prosecutor hinted that this was either an error in the arms trade or a political murder.
Umarov has testified in other murder trials involving Chechens.
Chechnya is the main Muslim region in Russia. Two wars in the 1990s triggered a wave of immigration, and many Chechens went to the west Europe.
However, in recent years, due to differences with the pro-Kremlin Kadyrov, more and more Chechens have been in exile, and activists have accused Kadyrov of repeatedly violating human rights.
