MOSCOW, April 23 (RAPSI) – Moscow’s Savelovsky District Court on Friday sentenced Kakha Gazzayev, a defendant in the case over the killing of crime lord Vyacheslav “Yaponchik” Ivankov in July 2009, to 14 years in high-security prison, the Investigative Committee’s press service reports.

He was found guilty of murder and arms trafficking.

According to investigators and the court, the defendant repeatedly kept an eye on Ivankov. Also, Gazzayev gave his accomplices a rifle for the killing. He personally participated in its transportation and storage. In the moment of the crime he was on the scene and observed its border territory.

Currently, a case against two other defendants Dzhambula Dzhanashia and Murtaza Shadaniya is pending in the Moscow City Court. It is to be considered by jury.

Ivankov, the so-called “thief-in-law,” who at the time was the top boss in the criminal hierarchy, was murdered on July 28, 2009.