A court in Qatar sentenced two Russians to life imprisonment for killing a Chechen rebel leader in the Gulf state and said the Russian leadership was behind the assassination

A court in Qatar sentenced two Russians to life imprisonment for killing a Chechen rebel leader in the Gulf state and said the Russian leadership was behind the assassination, Reuters reports. According to Qatari legislation, life sentence means 25 years of prison. Judge Ibrahim al-Nisf sentenced Anatoly Belashkov and Vassily Bogachev, and said the two men had been acting on orders from Moscow. “The Russian leadership issued an order to assassinate the former Chechen leader (Zelimkhan) Yandarbiyev,” Reuters quoted him as saying. The trial had threatened to cause a diplomatic breach between Qatar, a key U.S. ally, and Russia. Observers had expected that the men would be condemned but eventually set free, Reuters reports. “I expect they will be sentenced as guilty and given either death or a life sentence, then after (Russian President Vladimir) Putin intervenes they are transferred to Russia in a few months,” legal expert Najib al-Nuaimi, who is not involved in the case, told Reuters before today’s sentencing was announced. Nuaimi, a former justice minister, noted that Qatar had chosen this path in similar situations before.