Azernews.Az

BAKU – Another member of the ring that was earlier convicted over committing a terror attack at a Baku mosque in 2008 was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Tuesday.

The ring that included Samir Mehdiyev was accused of staging an explosion at the Abu Bakr mosque on August 17, 2008, which killed three people and injured 19 others after two hand grenades blew up during a prayer.

Investigators of the National Security Ministry said that Mehdiyev, his brother-in-law Ilgar Mollachiyev, known as "Abdulmajid", an Azerbaijani citizen associated with extremist activities in Russia’s Northern Caucasus, as well as other religious radicals, masterminded the attack.

Mollachiyev was killed by security forces in the Russian republic of Daghestan in September 2008.

26 other members of the gang, known as the "Forest Brothers", were arrested and handed down jail sentences in the Grave Crimes Court of Baku in November 2009. 23 Azerbaijani citizens were convicted to between five and a half and 15 years in prison, while two Turks – two to six years, and one Russian national – to 15 years in jail.

However, Mehdiyev managed to escape arrest and fled to Pakistan. But in January 2010 he was seized there based on the Azerbaijani National Security Ministry’s data and extradited to Azerbaijan in March that year.