Dagestan airport pogrom: Russia sentences 5 for antisemitic airport riots

A court in southern Russia on Friday sentenced five men to more than six years in prison each in the first convictions related to a mass anti-Israel riot last October at an airport in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region.

The men, who were given sentences ranging from just over six years to nine years for engaging in rioting, did not admit guilt, the court in the Krasnodar region said. One rioter was also found guilty of committing violence against a government official.

The trial was moved from Dagestan to Krasnodar due to the sensitivity of the case.

Last October hundreds of anti-Israel rioters stormed an airport in the city of Makhachkala where a plane from Tel Aviv had just arrived in a spate of unrest in the North Caucasus.

Attacking arrivals from Tel Aviv

Video footage showed the rioters, mostly young men, waving Palestinian flags, breaking down glass doors and running through the airport shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greater).

The crowd converged on the airport after a message on a local Telegram channel urged Dagestanis to meet the "uninvited guests" in "adult fashion" and to get the plane and its passengers to turn around and fly somewhere else.

The channel, which was later banned by Telegram, did not use the word "Jew" but referred to the plane's passengers as being "unclean."

In Khasavyurt, also located in Dagestan, rioters gathered at a hotel where Israelis who had fled the fighting were reported to be staying, with some of the rioters entering the hotel and only leaving after ensuring that no Israelis were in the hotel.

The “ChP Dagestan” Telegram channel reported that the riots in Khasavyurt began after “a person resembling an Israeli citizen” was seen walking near the hotel.

The Russian Echo FM radio reported that a resident of Dagestan stated “I went into every room, I checked every person. I looked at the passport, looked at the face to see if this face corresponded to the passport. There are no [Jews] there, brothers, you are simply being provoked. We need to go home. Well done to everyone who came, you’re all caring.”

More than 20 people were injured before security forces could contain the unrest. No passengers on the plane were hurt.

Police arrested dozens of people, whose cases are now making their way through Russian courts.

President Vladimir Putin blamed the West and Ukraine for the unrest, without providing evidence. Kyiv denied any role and the United States strongly condemned the violence.