MOSCOW, October 26 (Itar-Tass) — The jurors at the Moscow City Court on Wednesday passed a guilty verdict in the case over the murder of Spartak football club fan Yuri Volkov.
According to the verdict, Akhmedpasha Aidayev is guilty of murder out of hooligan motives, as well as battery and hooliganism committed by a group in collusion. Another defendant in the case - Bekkhan Ibragimov - was found guilty of malicious infliction of light harm to health, and hooliganism committed by a group of persons in collusion.
The document notes that on July 10, 2010, at around 01:10, Moscow time, the defendants, setting themselves against other persons around them, and demonstrating disparagement to others, in the presence of strangers, attacked the injured parties whom they did not know.
"Provoking a fight, Aidayev shouldered one of the injured parties - Maxim Domnitsky, and, using a small pretest, namely, the latter's rebuke, hit him with his fist in the left eye and the shoulder, while the second attacker stabbed Dmitriyev in the shoulder, and also inflicted a non-penetrating thrust and cut wound on his back.
The jury said Ibragimov was guilty as he had stabbed Maxim Domnitsky and Valentin Podoprigora, whereupon he tried to escape from the scene but was detained.
The jury said the defendants did not deserve clemency. The judge thus may mete out the maximum punishment.
Meanwhile, the defendants' lawyers said they would appeal against the jurors' verdict.
"The defense will certainly protest today's verdict, as we believe it is illegitimate and unjustified," lawyer Abusupyan Gaitayev, who represents the interests of one of the defendants, told Itar-Tass.
According to the lawyers, the verdict was not surprising, "judging by the way the trial has been running."
They complained about numerous violations by the presiding judge, alleging that he had obstructed the proceedings on the part of the lawyers and interrupted them for no valid reasons.
"We have nothing to blame the jurors for, if I were in their place I'd also rule that our clients are guilty. The presiding judge has been running an accusatory trial from the beginning," one of the lawyers said.
The discussion of the legal consequences of the verdict will take place on October 27. The prosecutors for the state will name the penalty they believe the defendants deserve. The defendants, will make their statements, too.
One of the articles under which Akhmedpasha Aidayev was found guilty envisions up to life imprisonment.
The prosecutor for the state declined to comment.