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Hearing of high-profile case against Krasnodar territory gang postponed

On November 5, 2010, the bodies of 12 people, including four children, were found in the house of farmer Server Ametov's house in the village of Kushchevskaya

Sergei Tsapok Itar-Tass/Andrei Mironov

Sergei Tsapok

© Itar-Tass/Andrei Mironov

KRASNODAR, November 12, 12:30 /ITAR-TASS/. The Krasnodar territory court has postponed to 15:00, Moscow time, the hearing of a high-profile case against the gang accused of serious crimes. The hearing was postponed because of the absence of one of the defendants' lawyers.

"Lawyer Igor Kuimdzhi representing the interests of Vladimir Alexeyev has failed to appear in court," judge Vladimir Kulkov said.

On November 8, a panel of jurors passed a guilty verdict for gang leader Sergei Tsapok and his accomplices Vladimir Alexeyev, Vladimir Zaporozhets, Nikolai Tsapok, Vyacheslav Tsepovyaz and Igor Chernyzh. The investigator said each had been involved in three to 20 serious or very serious crimes.

According to the verdict, none of the defendants deserved clemency.

Tsapok was the gang's leader for 11 years. He was charged with 17 counts of crime. The hearings of the criminal case comprising almost 500 volumes began a year ago.

Prosecutor for the state Viktor Antipov had noted that the Tsapki group had operated in the village since the 1990s, and that they never concealed being gangsters.

On November 5, 2010, the bodies of 12 people, including four children, were found in the house of farmer Server Ametov's house in the village of Kushchevskaya, Krasnodar Territory. Ten days later, Sergei Tsapok was detained in Rostov. In all, police detained ten suspects in connection with the murder.

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