A Chechen man has been sentenced to prison over a deadly hostage-taking in the southern Russian city of Budyonnovsk in 1995, a turning point in the first of the two post-Soviet separatist wars in nearby Chechnya.
The North Caucasus Regional Military Court in the city of Rostov-on-Don on June 14 found Badruddi Daudov guilty of hostage-taking and taking part in a terrorist attack and sentenced him to 14 years in prison.
Daudov pleaded not guilty. It is not clear when he was arrested.
On June 14, 1995, a group of Chechen separatists led by Shamil Basayev attacked a local police station and government buildings in Budyonnovsk and took some 1,500 people hostage, demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.
About 150 people were killed.
The surviving hostages were released following a five-day siege after Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin promised a cease-fire in Chechnya and gave Basayev and his backers safe passage back to Chechnya.
The deal to resolve the crisis paved the way for an August 1996 agreement that ended the war.
A second war erupted in 1999, with then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin playing a prominent role in decision-making, after Basayev led militants in an incursion into neighboring Daghestan.
Basayev, who became the most wanted man in Russia, was killed in an explosion in 2006.
