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Ukrainian court sentenced Russian bus driver to 5.5 years in prison

Sixteen pilgrims died in the accident, another 26 were hurt

KIEV, February 16 (Itar-Tass) - A district court in Chernigov, Ukraine, on Thursday sentenced a Russian driver guilty of a bus accident involving Russian pilgrims to five and a half years in jail. The driver was also banned from driving a car for two years. The accident occurred near Chernigov in July 2012, the press service of the prosecutor’s office of the Chernigov region said.

However, state prosecutors believe that the sentence doesn’t correspond to the gravity of the crime and are going to appeal the verdict passed by the court of primary jurisdiction, the prosecutor’s office said in its statement.

The accident occurred near the Krasnoye village on the Chernigov-Kiev highway on July 7 last year. A Neoplan bus was taking more than 40 Russian pilgrims from the town of Velikiye Luki of the Pskov region to the Pochaevskaya Lavra in Ukraine’s Ternopol region. Sixteen pilgrims died in the accident, another 26 were hurt. There were 43 people on the bus together with the driver.