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Krasikov was convicted of executing Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, with three shots on Aug. 23, 2019 in the central Berlin park Kleiner Tiergarten. Federal prosecutors called it a political murder ordered by Russia.
Russia has always maintained that any accusations of Russian involvement in the killing were “absolutely groundless.”
German authorities had concluded back in December 2019 already that Russian agents or those linked to them were involved in the killing and expelled two Russian diplomats. They said Russian officials had not cooperated in the investigation despite repeated high-level requests.
The killing was the latest in a long series of accusations that Russia assassinates its political opponents even when they are abroad. Britain has accused Moscow of attacking a former Russian agent turned informant Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, Britain with a nerve agent in 2018.
Russian agents were also believed to be behind the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.
During the current trial, Khangoshvili’s relatives submitted a statement to the court maintaining that Russia was trying to “send a message” to its political enemies with the assassination. The lawyer for the relatives asked that Krasikov be disqualified from parole after 15 years if he were to receive a life sentence.
Opposition figures to Russia-allied Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov have in particular been targeted by assassins over the years. The latest was Mimkhan Umaraov who was gunned down outside a shopping center in Austria in July 2020. A Russian suspect fled the scene and was later arrested.
Others have been attacked in Europe, Turkey and the Middle East, including former acting leader of Chechnya, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, was assassinated in a car-bomb attack in Doha, the capital of Qatar, in 2004.
Paul Schemm in London contributed to this report
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