MOSCOW, October 27 (Itar-Tass) — The prosecutor for the state demanded that Akhmedpasha Aidayev, who was found guilty of the murder of Spartak football club fan Yuri Volkov, be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The prosecutor made the statement at the Moscow City Court which met on Thursday to discuss the legal consequences of the jury verdict.
"I ask the court to sentence Aidayev to 20 years in a maximum security prison," the prosecutor stated.
He demanded eight years in prison for another defendant, Bekkhan Ibragimov.
For their part, the lawyers asked the judge to take into account mitigating circumstances and pass a softer verdict. Commenting on the jail terms the prosecutors demanded, the lawyers expressed bewilderment saying their position was biased.
"Budanov was sentenced to ten years for the murder of an innocent girl, and today, prosecutors insist on 20 years imprisonment for household fight - it is unfair, and shows ethnic bias with prosecutors' doing the bidding of the crowd," Aidayev's lawyer Absupyan Giatayev stated.
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," Gaitayev said.
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.
On Wednesday, a jury unanimously found the two defendants guilty of the murder of Yuri Volkov. The attackers do not deserve clemency, the jurors said.
The trail was held behind closed doors at the injured parties' request. The verdict is due to be announced on November 3.
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, whereupon he stabbed Yuri Volkov in the left side of the chest and tried to escape from the scene but was detained.
Ibragimov stabbed another two acquaintances of Volkov. He, too, attempted to escape but was detained.
Two persons were hospitalized after the fight.