Russian Talib Sentenced to Life Imprisonment in US
An American federal court sentenced a former Russian military officer to life imprisonment convicted for leading a 2009 Taliban attack on US forces in Afghanistan.
An American federal court sentenced a former Russian military officer to life imprisonment convicted for leading a 2009 Taliban attack on US forces in Afghanistan.
A former Russian military officer who received a life sentence for leading a 2009 Taliban attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan is not entitled to protections given to prisoners of war, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, upholding his convictions.
According to New York Times, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Irek Hamidullin — who led the attack on behalf of the Taliban and an allied terrorist organization, the Haqqani Network — was not entitled to combatant immunity.
Hamidullin’s lawyer had argued he was a solider, not a criminal, and was entitled to protections as a prisoner of war until a military tribunal determined his status.
But a three-judge panel of the appeals court agreed with the Justice Department’s argument that Hamidullin was not entitled to lawful-combatant status because by 2009, the war in Afghanistan was no longer classified as an international armed conflict.
In its 2-1 ruling, the court found that although the conflict in Afghanistan started in 2001 as an international armed conflict between the U.S. and its coalition partners and the Taliban-controlled Afghan government, by the time Hamidullin participated, the conflict had long since shifted “to a non-international armed conflict against unlawful Taliban insurgents.”
Hamidullin was captured by the Afghan Border Police and American soldiers in the Khost province of Afghanistan after he planned and participated in an attack on an Afghan Border Police post at Camp Leyza.
