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Defendant gets 17 years in football club fan murder case

The prosecutor for the state had demanded that Akhmedpasha Aidayev be sentenced to 20 years in prison

MOSCOW, November 3 (Itar-Tass) — The Moscow City Court on Thursday sentenced Akhmedpasha Aidayev to 17 years in a maximum security prison in a high-profile case over the murder of Spartak football club fan Yuri Volkov. His accomplice Bekkhan Ibragimov was sentenced to six years in a general regime penitentiary.

Aidayev was found guilty of first-degree murder for hooligan motives, and battery and hooliganism committed by a group in collusion.

Ibragimov was found guilty of malicious infliction of harm to health for hooligan motives, committed by a group in collusion.

The prosecutor for the state had demanded that Akhmedpasha Aidayev be sentenced to 20 years in prison, and Bekkhan Ibragimov - to eight years.

Last week, a jury unanimously found the two defendants guilty of the murder of Yuri Volkov. The attackers do not deserve clemency, the jurors said.

The trial was held behind closed doors at the injured parties' request.

The verdict 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 pre-test, 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 by going beyond the scope of accord, and then 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. Volkov died in an ambulance on the way to hospital.

The judge noted that each of the defendant had been fully aware of the actual nature of his actions and the degree of their gravity. The lawyers' arguments that it was "negligent death" were found ungrounded, as the jurors' verdict ascertained the guilt of all the defendants and the malicious nature of their actions.

Earlier, the lawyers protested the jurors' verdict as to harsh. The verdict was not surprising, "judging by the way the trial has been running," they said.

"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 defendants' lawyers said they would appeal the verdict at the Supreme Court.

"We'll certainly lodge a complaint about today's verdict with the Supreme Court and ask to overturn it and re-investigate the case in connection with numerous procedural violations during the trial," lawyer Abusupyan Gaitayev told Itar-Tass.

After the reading of the verdict, the defendants' relatives and the injured parties' friends exchanged words which very nearly escalated to a fight. The incident occurred after one of the relatives, upon leaving the courtroom, began to chant "Allah Akbar." The defendants were shouting it during the reading of the verdict, too. The injured parties resented it, and bailiffs had to step in to prevent the fight. Security was tightened around the Moscow City Court on Thursday. Special task force units were on hand in the building and on the premises.

Volkov's mother Marina Volkova called the verdict fair.

"It does not matter what terms the court meted out to the defendants; the main thing is that they've been punished, and I think the court's verdict is fair," Volkova said.

When journalists asked her if she feared revenge from the defendants' relatives, she underlined that "the worst thing in my life has already happened: so I have nothing to fear now."

She noted however, that the defendants had threatened her during the trial.

The representatives of the Moscow prosecutor's office said they agreed with the verdict.

"The jurors unanimously passed a guilty verdict for Aidayev and Ibragimov, and the court, when making a decision, agreed with us on all the points of the indictment. We agree with this ruling and find it legitimate," one of the prosecutors said.