[SAHARAREPORTERS] A Moscow City Court has sentenced former Russian senator Rauf Arashukov and his father, Raul, to life imprisonment in a high-profile murder case.
The former politician was detained in 2019 while attending a parliamentary session, RT reports.
At the time, the prosecutor general, Yury Chaika, and the head of the Investigative Committee, Aleksandr Bastrykin, personally led the detention.
Sequel to his arrest, fellow senators voted to strip him of parliamentary immunity during the same session.
The trial judge, who earlier found the ex-senator and his father guilty of planning the murder of the deputy head of a local youth movement, Aslan Zhukov, sentenced them to life imprisonment.
While pronouncing their sentence on Tuesday, the judge held: "The court does not see any obstacles to sentencing Raul and Rauf Arashukov to life in prison."
Zhukov was also an aide to the leader of Russia’s southern Karachay-Cherkessia region, Fral Shebzukhov at the time of his murder.
Only one juror found that the guilt of the two men had not been sufficiently proven and that they deserved leniency, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
Raul Arashukov was additionally found guilty of stealing over 4.4 billion rubles ($62 million) from Russian energy giant Gazprom.
In September, the jury also found both men guilty of forming a criminal group with the goal of stealing 30 billion rubles ($425 million) from the company.
The court seized several of the Arashukovs’ cars, including a Bentley and a rare Soviet Chaika. A total of 18 other suspects were put on trial in connection with the case.
Both men denied their guilt. Rauf, 36, was described as Russia’s youngest senator during his tenure between 2016 and 2019, representing Karachay-Cherkessia Region. His father Raul was once a gas mogul.
Arashukov Jr. was exposed as one of the organisers of a contract killing after a hitman from a group that carried out one of the murders turned himself in back in August 2018.
The senator’s arrest kick-started what ended up being a large-scale police operation involving searches in several Russian cities. 
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