IRKUTSK, April 4 (Itar-Tass) — The Irkutsk regional court on Wednesday passed a guilty verdict for bothers Artyom and Ruslan Vokin who shot and killed two police officers a year ago.
"The Irkutsk region court ruled to sentence to life imprisonment Artyom Vokin, and his brother Ruslan – to 22 years in a maximum security prison," the press service of the regional Investigative Committee department told Itar-Tass.
The defendants were found guilty under seven articles of the Criminal Code, the press service said.
On April 12, 2011, a police patrol car blocked the Vokins' car VAZ-21053 which had no license plates. The Vokins then, using a sawn-off hunting gun and the Saiga hunting carbine, opened fire at the police, killing an Ensign and a Junior Sergeant. Another Junior Sergeant was wounded. The brothers stole the police officers' service weapons and a bullet-proof vest and fled the scene.
Two weeks later, Ruslan Vokin, 23, was detained in the Tarsky district of the Omsk region in a special operation, assisted by special task force. His 26-year-old brother was detained in the same district later.
It was ascertained in the course of the investigation that the Vokins had killed Kyrgyz and Georgian national for hate reason in 2010. "They had several caches with homemade bombs. The bomb making instructions were taken from the Internet. The brothers testified they had plans to carry out a series of attacks on building of Irkutsk region's law-enforcement bodies," police said.