The Dubai Court of Appeals has slashed the sentences of the men convicted of assassinating a Chechen collaborator of Russian invaders in Chechnya, Sulim Yamadayev, in Dubai from life in prison to three years.

Mahdi Lorniya, a horse groomer for Ramzan Kadyrov, and Makhsudzhon Ismatov, 32, a Tajik national, had been convicted and sentenced to life in prison by the lower court in April of 2010 for aiding and abetting the premeditated murder of Sulim Yamadayev. They were also convicted of possessing an unlicensed weapon, a gold-plated 9mm Stechkin APS, thought to be the weapon that killed Yamadayev.

Without explanation, the Dubai Appeal Court limited the sentences of Iranian Mahdi Lorniya and the Tajik Makhsudzhon Ismatov to 27 months.

Lawyer Lorni Abdulli Al-Madani said the two men have already spent 21 months in prison, which will be counted in the new sentences.

Key to the verdict was a declaration signed by the Yamadayev family executor in which the family forfeited the right to retributive punishment and said they were not seeking financial compensation for the murder.

Yamadayev was shot to death in the basement parking garage of his Jumeirah Beach Residence on March 28, 2009, in an assassination that is thought to have been politically motivated. Nine men, including these two men, a current member of the Russian parliament and Kadyrov’s relative Adam Delimkhanov, are believed by Dubai police to have been involved. Dubai police issued seven Interpol red notices, or arrest warrants, for the suspected killers.

*Text was translated by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco