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Opposition politician Sergei Furgal in custody
Photo: YULIA MOROZOVA / REUTERS
A Moscow court has sentenced former governor and popular regional politician Sergei Furgal to 22 years in prison.
The 52-year-old is accused of involvement in contract killings.
According to the Russian news agency Interfax, the judge Gennady Tsoi said that the politician had to serve his sentence in a prison camp for serious criminals.
Prosecutors had asked for 23 years in prison.
Furgal was found guilty of attempted murder and ordering the contract killings of several business competitors.
The allegations go back almost 20 years.
In the early 2000s, Furgal is said to have organized the murder of two competing businessmen as an entrepreneur.
Furgal himself denies the allegations.
Three men also charged in the trial were sentenced to nine and a half, 17 and 21 years in prison.
The politician belongs to the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of the late right-wing populist Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
He was governor of the Khabarovsk region in the Far Eastern Federal District, which is about 6100 kilometers and seven time zones east of Moscow.
Shock result for Putin
In 2018, Furgal won a surprise election victory amid a wave of anti-Moscow sentiment, defeating the then incumbent governor of the United Russia party, which supports President Vladimir Putin.
For the leadership in Moscow, this was a shock result because of the tightly controlled electoral system.
Putin fired Furgal days after his arrest in 2020, citing a “loss of confidence” and installed a more pro-government governor in his place.
The Kremlin's dismissal led to months of protests in Khabarovsk.
Many protesters viewed the process as politically motivated.
Furgal's lawyers announced an appeal against the verdict and a request for acquittal in the court near Moscow.
mrc/dpa/Reuters