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Moscow graveyard brawler sentenced to 11 years behind bars

The Moscow City Court has sentenced the former director of a Moscow funeral home to 11 years in prison for organizing riots at the Khovanskoye Cemetery

MOSCOW, November 14. /TASS/. The Moscow City Court has sentenced the former director of a Moscow funeral home, Yuri Chabuyev, to 11 years in prison for organizing riots at the Khovanskoye Cemetery in southwestern Moscow, a TASS correspondent reported from the courtroom.

"The court hereby finds Chabuyev guilty and … sentences him to 11 years in a maximum-security prison," the verdict reads.

The 16 defendants in the case are charged with felonies under Section 212 of Russia’s Criminal Code ("Organization of mass riots and participation in them"), Section 111 ("Causing serious harm to health, resulting in the death of two or more people") and Section 286 ("Abuse of power"). During the trial, the prosecutors demanded that Chabuyev get a 13-year sentence in a maximum-security facility and prison terms for the other defendants varying from 4 to 12 years.

The defendants in the case will appeal the verdict, Mikhail Karapetyan, the defense attorney of one of those convicted, informed TASS. "The verdict is illegal and unfounded. We will be sure to appeal it," he vowed.

A mass brawl and shootout involving more than 200 people broke out at the Khovanskoye Cemetery on May 14, 2016. Three people were killed and more than 30 others were hospitalized. According to investigators, the altercation broke out because the management and labor migrants failed to come to terms on how to share the cemetery’s grounds.