Regional Leader’s relative jailed for cement murders
Ali Kaitov, the son-in-law of the president of the republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia, was sentenced Wednesday to 17 years in prison by the republic’s Supreme Court for ordering seven murders. The court also handed down lengthy terms to Tamerlan Bostanov and Azamat Akbayev, who fatally shot local lawmaker Rasul Bogatyrev and six other men in a dispute over a local cement plant. Bostanov and Akbayev received life sentences.
Kaitov and Bogatyrev belonged to rival clans and had been battling for control of the Kavkaz Tsement cement plant. Bogatyrev arrived at Kaitov’s dacha on Oct. 11, 2004, to discuss the dispute, only to be killed along with his six-man retinue.
The case sent shockwaves through this area in the Northern Caucasus. After the seven men were killed, the killers dismembered the bodies, burnt them in a bonfire filled with car tires and disposed of the remains in a pit. But Federal police managed to uncover the remains.
The gruesome discovery, coupled with suspicions that Kaitov had been involved in the crime, led relatives and victims’ supporters to storm the government building in Cherkessk, the republic’s capital, and demand that Kaitov’s father-in-law, republic President Mustafa Batdyev, step down.
Published under Cement News
