The Supreme Court of Dagestan has sentenced former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev in absentia to 19 years in prison in the case of an anti-Semitic massacre at Makhachkala airport in October 2023.
Together with Ponomarev, followed by Materials In the case of organizing a massacre, the Islamic preacher Israel Akhmadnabiyev, known as Abu Omar Sasitlensky, and Abkar Abakarov, whom the Russian authorities consider to be the director of the Telegram channel “Morning Dagestan,” were tried in absentia. He writes “Media Zone”. They got 16 and 15 years old.
The press service reported that the three convicts are still on the international wanted list. Meanwhile, Russian media previously reported that Abakarov was killed in Türkiye in 2025.
A court representative told TASS that Ponomarev received the longest sentence in the case of organizing the massacre.
The riots occurred at Makhachkala Airport on the evening of October 29, 2023, when hundreds of Dagestanis surrounded a plane coming from Tel Aviv in search of “refugees from Israel.” Russian investigators believe that the massacre occurred due to false information published in the “Morning Dagestan” telegraph channel. During the riots, 23 police officers were injured, and dozens of riot participants were arrested. The passengers of the flight coming from Tel Aviv were transported from the airport by military helicopters.