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Boxer sentenced to ten years in prison for beating shop visitor to death

Vitaly Pankratov cruelly beat up the 34-year-old Alexander Filipov, who implicated the boxer in theft and reprimanded him
Vitaly Pankratov. Screenshot "Russia 24"
Vitaly Pankratov. Screenshot "Russia 24"

SAMARA, June 13 (Itar-Tass) -- Boxer Vitaly Pankratov has been sentenced to a prison term of ten years in a maximum security prison for beating a shop visitor to death in Samara last July, the press service of the Investigative Committee for the Samara region said on Thursday.

The incident occurred on July 14, 2012. Pankratov, who is a professional boxer, cruelly beat up the 34-year-old Alexander Filipov, who implicated the boxer in theft and reprimanded him. The case aroused a strong public uproar.

The investigation blamed the boxer for causing human death through carelessness, which carries a prison term up to three years. Shortly after the incident a video featuring the cruel beating,as a result of which the victim died, was circulated on the Internet.

The video, brought to the knowledge of the general public, has demonstrated to all an act of cruel beating of a person who was already down and unable to move, but was being kicked until the victim died.

Nevertheless, a forensic expert made a conclusion that the victim died as a result of falling onto a hard floor surface. The conclusion enabled to change the murder charge brought against Pankratov into a milder charge he is facing now. The Prosecutor's office supported the investigator's conclusion, SK said earlier.

The Samara Promyshlenny District court managed to overrule the suggested version of the incident and ordered an additional investigation into the case, demanding to change the charge of "murder through carelessness " into "the intentional harm caused to human health," which carries a 15- year -prison term.

The chief of the investigative department of the Promyshlenny district has been reprimanded for incorrect qualification of the assassin's conduct.