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Court to pronounce sentence over attack on Khimki forest defender

Andrei Kashirin, a 30-year-old Muscovite, is charged with an attempt to commit murder, instigation and complicity in beating

MOSCOW, November 30 (Itar-Tass) — The Moscow Region's court this Friday will pronounce a sentence for a defendant over the attack against journalist Konstantin Fetisov, an activist of the movement "In Defence of the Khimki Forest".

The accused man, Andrei Kashirin, a 30-year-old Muscovite, is charged with an attempt to commit murder, instigation and complicity in beating.

The trial was held according to the special procedure when the defendant pleaded guilty and "concluded a cooperation deal" with the investigators.

The prosecutor demanded to sentence Kashirin to seven years' imprisonment.

On November 4, 2010, journalist and environmental protection activist Konstantin Fetisov was beaten up after he participated in a picket meeting against a dump in Khimki's Levoberezhny (Left River Bank) district. He was beaten with baseball bats when he returned from the police station, where he was brought after the protest meeting.

Fetisov was taken to an intensive care unit in a hospital and for some time he remained in a medically induced coma.

According to the investigators' version, for support promised by Khimki administration department head and Khimki municipal district head Andrei Chernyshov in municipal service employment and business, Kashirin asked Vazgen Tsaturyan and Denis Rastokin to beat up Fetisov and promised to pay them 30,000 roubles.

Kashirin participated in spying on Fetisov and tried to gain his confidence. On September 18, 2010, Kashirin called the activist and under false pretences asked to meet. During the meeting, the attackers beat the journalist.

In November 2010, Kashirin, according to the investigators, following Chernyshov's instructions, found Maxim Kriventsov and asked him to kill Fetisov for 1,000 dollars. Kashirin watched the activist's home, brought the attacker there, handed over a bat to him and asked to beat the activist on the head to kill him. During the attack, Kashirin escaped and left for Belarus.

The motive of the two crimes was the displeasure with Fetisov's public activity aimed at disclosing violations of officials and drawing attention of law-enforcement and control authorities to them, an Investigative Committee source said earlier.

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