Four participants in the riots at Makhachkala airport received 10 years in prison.

A court in the Stavropol Territory sentenced four Dagestani residents to 10 years in prison for participating in riots at Makhachkala airport in 2023. This was announced on May 14 by the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation on its website.

It is specified that on October 29, 2023, at Uytash airport, Arsen Arbuliyev, Malik Aliyev, Saidapandi Abdulazizov and Nazhmudin Abakarov, driven by national and religious hatred of Israeli citizens, participated in mass riots with violence and destruction of property worth 24 million rubles, ignoring the demands of law enforcement agencies.

According to the agency, the defendants were found guilty under Part 2 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Participation in mass riots accompanied by violence, pogroms, destruction of property, the use of objects that pose a danger to others, as well as armed resistance to a representative of the authorities"), Part 3 of Article 263.1 of the Criminal Code ("Failure to comply with transport requirements security at transport infrastructure facilities and vehicles, if this act negligently caused major damage committed by a group of persons by prior agreement").

"The court, taking into account the position of the public prosecutor, taking into account the nature and degree of public danger of the crimes committed and the role of each, sentenced the defendants to imprisonment for a period of 10 years to be served in a correctional colony of a general regime," the ministry said in a statement.

The riots at Makhachkala Airport began on the evening of October 29, 2023. The participants came with anti-Israel posters and chanted slogans in support of Palestine. At some point, part of the crowd broke down the entrance doors and broke into the airline terminal building. The damage caused to the airport amounted to more than 285 million rubles.

On July 9, 2024, Dagestan's Interior Minister Abdurashid Magomedov announced that 140 people were in custody in connection with the riots. In addition, according to him, more than 1.2 thousand participants in the incident were brought to administrative responsibility.

Later, in August, the first five defendants were sentenced to up to nine years in the case of riots at the Makhachkala airport. They are serving their sentences in general regime colonies.