(MENAFN- Pajhwok Afghan News) KABUL (Pajhwok): A US court has sentenced former Russian tank commander to life term plus 30 years on charges of conspiring to shoot down American helicopters and using a weapon of mass destruction, a media report said on Thursday.
Irek Ilgiz Hamidullin, 55, the former Russian tank commander turned Taliban militant will spend the rest of his life in prison for a failed attack against US and Afghan forces in 2009.
"Few crimes could be more serious than this one," US Attorney Dana Boente said Thursday. "In a well-planned, deliberate, and premeditated attack, Hamidullin led an assault upon an Afghan outpost by a group of insurgents, many of whom he recruited and trained, with the intent to kill Afghan border police and responding American forces."
Hamidullin and the others used machine guns, bombs, and shoulder-fired rockets to try to attack an Afghan military post in Khost, near the Pakistani border. When they attempted to fire at U.S. helicopters who responded to the attack, the weapons misfired.
The next day US forces captured Hamdullin, who was wounded and hiding on the battlefield.
Hamidullin's lawyer, public defender Paul Gill, said he would appeal the convictions and sentence.
U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson handed down the sentence after Hamidullin, a convert to Islam, delivered a defense of his actions that lasted more than half an hour and cited Jesus Christ and Allah.
During his address to the court, Hamidullin argued that he was not a terrorist and had the right to defend himself against "American aggressors" who had invaded Afghanistan.
"As a Muslim, I don't accept your law. I don't acknowledge this court," Hamidullin said through an interpreter.
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