Berlin murder trial ends triggers expulsion of Russian diplomats

A court in Berlin has convicted a Russian man for the 2019 murder of a Chechnya-related Georgian national. Two Russian diplomats have been asked to leave the EU country subsequently, British public broadcaster BBC reports.
On August 23, 2019, in Berlin’s park of Tiergarden, a former Chechen rebel commander of Georgian origin, Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, was shot dead. This week the court Vadim Krasikov was found guilty of shooting Khangoshvili.
During the trial, Krasikov and his lawyers said the suspect was a construction worker. The man identified himself as Vadim Sokolov and denied being known as Krasikov.
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However, judges, who sentenced Krasikov to life in prison, noted they were convinced that he was acting on the orders of Russian authorities. «Russian state authorities ordered the accused to liquidate the victim,» the Berlin court’s presiding judge Olaf Arnoldi stated after sentencing.
Germany’s new Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock commented that the court had found that the murder was carried out «on the order of state agencies of the Russian Federation» and it was a serious violation of German law and sovereignty. Russia has denied its involvement in the crime, BBC reports.