The court in Armavir (Krasnodar Territory) will consider the criminal case of the pogrom at the Makhachkala airport. Kommersant reports this. The first five defendants, residents of Dagestan, are charged with participation in mass riots, one of them is also charged with using force against a government official. There are a total of 131 defendants in the case. Eight of them are wanted.

Let us recall that on October 29, 2023, hundreds of people broke into Makhachkala airport, trying to find passengers on a transit flight from Tel Aviv. Those gathered opposed Israel's actions in Palestine.

Earlier, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation granted the requests of the Prosecutor General's Office to change the territorial jurisdiction of the case of some accused. According to lawyers, the change in jurisdiction is illegal and violates the constitutional rights of citizens.

According to investigators, the organizers of the riots were ex-State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev, recognized as a foreign agent, also living outside the Russian Federation and put on the wanted list on suspicion of financing terrorism, Israil Akhmednabiev (known as the preacher Abu Umar Sasitlinsky) and Abakar Abakarov, put on the wanted list in November last year of the year. All of them had connections with the TG channel “Morning Dagestan”, where calls for protest against the arrival of Israeli citizens were disseminated.

The total damage from the pogrom at the airport is estimated at 24.7 million rubles. The first court hearing is scheduled for June 18.