YEKATERINBURG, February 12 (Itar-Tass) - The Verkhnyaya Pyshma court in the Sverdlovsk region passed guilty verdicts on Tuesday for police officers Sergei Zinovyev and Vadim Zainiyev, accused of negligence that resulted in a mass fight in the village of Sagra. Zinovyev was sentenced to three years and two months in prison and Zainiyev to ten months of community work. Ten 10 percent of Zainiyev's salary will be deducted to the budget. Also, both were banned from taking jobs at government bodies for three years, the Court's press service told Itar-Tass.
The prosecutor for the state had demanded that Zinovyev be sentenced to 5 years and 3 months, and Zainiyev to 1 year of community work.
The armed conflict broke out as a result of lax control by the local police chief over his subordinates' work, district police officer Zainiyev and public security department head Zinovyev. Specifically, their checks for compliance with registration and firearms keeping rules by Sagra residents had been careless. Some of the firearms were used in mass disturbances, the investigators said.
It was ascertained that Zainiyev had known about the upcoming unrest, but withheld this information from the administration. He left the Sverdlovsk region on the day of the fight.
Sverdlovsk region police spokesman Valery Gorelykh said Zinoyev had resigned of his own accord, and Zainiyev would be relieved of his duties after the verdict came into effect.
According to the investigators, Ivan Lebedev and Kakhaber Chichua who are now serving their sentences in prison, set up a gang comprising eight members in early 2011. It included Shota Katamadze, Artyom Rabadanov, Magomed Bekov, Vitaly Slatimov, Kardash Fatakhov and Faig Musaiyev.
"In the summer, two residents of the Sagra settlement - Valentina and Vyacheslav Lebedev, after quarrelling with local residents, phoned their relative Ivan Lebedev in prison and asked him to stage mass disturbances in the village for 30,000 roubles, an official at the regional department of the Prosecutor General's Office said.
"Lebedev instructed Shota Katamadze, together with other gang members, to work out a plan of attack. The gang then phoned their acquaintances and rounded up at least 30 people.
"Having armed themselves with a sawn-off shotgun, non-lethal pistols, baseball bats, wooden sticks, metal rods and other hard objects, they came in 13 cars to Sagra and staged mass disturbances at the entrance to Sagra overnight to July 1, 2011. A 28-year-old resident of Yekaterinburg was killed in the shooting. The defendants threatened physical violence on injured parties, and fired several shots. The attackers withdrew as they heard a police detail was on their way to the village," the prosecutor said.
Searches at defendants' apartments found air pistols, nunchucks, baseball bats, batons, brass knuckles, an axe, and assault rifle and machine gun ammunition.
The proceedings against one participant in the mass disturbance made a separate case. He was found insane and the investigators asked the court to send him for compulsory treatment.
At present, arguments of the parties are underway at the Sverdlovsk regional court in the case against 23 Sagra fight participants.
The first substantive hearing of the case against Col Marat Khalimov, the superior of Zainiyev and Zinovyev, is due on February 13.