Dubai: Two men charged with collaboration in Chechen leader Sulim Yamadayev's assassination have been sentenced to life in jail and deportation.

The Dubai Public Prosecution on Monday charged an Iranian clerk, M.T., and a Tajik businessman, M.K., both 37, with aiding and abetting four fugitives who carried out Yamadayev's killing.

Yamadayev was a Chechen military leader who was gunned down in the parking lot of his Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) home in March, 2009.

Judge Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad of the Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday sentenced the two suspects to 25 years in jail and deportation.

Earlier, the lawyers defending them had disputed the evidence submitted by prosecutors and asked the court to acquit them.

The suspects had pleaded innocent.

M.T.'s three lawyers, Dr Fahd Al Sabhan, Obaid Ali Obaid and Tarek Al Qassem, and M.K.'s two lawyers had told the Dubai Court of First Instance that their clients are innocent and that the evidence submitted against them was "groundless and uncorroborated". - Gulf News