MOSCOW, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Moscow District Military Court on Thursday sentenced the principal murderer of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov to 20 years in prison.
Zaur Dadayev's four accomplices in the 2015 killing were given between 11 and 19 years in jail. Each of the five defendants was fined 100,000 rubles (about 1,700 U.S. dollars). Lawyers for the defendants said they will appeal the verdict.
Last month, a jury found the five men guilty of assassinating Nemtsov. On Wednesday, prosecutors requested the court to hand down a sentence of life imprisonment for Dadayev and severer punishment for the rest of the defendants..
Nemtsov was shot dead on a bridge outside the Kremlin at around midnight on Feb. 27, 2015, when he was walking along with a Ukrainian model.
Nemtsov, who once served as Russia's deputy prime minister, was a pro-Kiev political figure and an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Shortly after the murder, the Kremlin said the well-planned crime was aimed at defaming Putin at the height of the then Ukrainian crisis.
According to previous investigations, the possible mastermind behind the crime is Ruslan Mukhudinov, a former officer of the interior ministry of the Russian republic of Chechnya in the North Caucasus.
Mukhudinov was charged in absentia by a Moscow court, and he has been on an international wanted list since November 2015. Russian investigators are continuing to work on the case.
Following Thursday's court ruling, a lawyer for Nemtsov's daughter said she hopes the mastermind will be caught and jailed for life.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the verdict, saying he hopes the mastermind will be brought to justice.
