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Slovakian court sentences driver for killing 8 people in road accident in Russia

MOSCOW, January 30. /ITAR-TASS/. A court in the Slovakian town of Cadca has sentenced long-distance truck driver Miroslav Keles to three years in prison for killing eight people in a car accident in Russia, the prosecutor’s office for the Moscow region told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

In 2008, Keles, driving a Volvo truck in the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region, violated road traffic rules and collided with the Ford-Transit minibus. As a result, eight minibus passengers died and two were seriously injured.

Prosecutors initiated criminal proceedings against Keles on charges of violating road traffic rules that caused the death of two or more people on negligence.

After the accident, Keles fled to his native Slovakia where he tried to escape from investigators.

In December 2011, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office sent a formal request to Slovakia’s investigative bodies to initiate criminal proceedings against Keles in compliance with an inter-state treaty.

The court has also banned Keles from driving a vehicle for a period of five years.

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