14:35, 19 November 2013

Three defendants in Kuschevskaya massacre case sentenced to life imprisonment

The Krasnodar Territorial Court. Photo: Yury Grechko / Yugopolis

The Krasnodar Territorial Court has sentenced Sergey Tsapok, the main figurant in the case about the massacre committed in the village of Kuschevskaya, to life imprisonment to be served in a special security colony. Vladimir Alexeev and Igor Chernykh, other figurants in the case, also received life imprisonments.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that November 8 Sergey Tsapok, Nikolai Tsapok, Vladimir Zaporozhets, Vyacheslav Tsepovyaz, Vladimir Alexeev and Igor Chernykh were found guilty of all the crimes imputed to them, including the murder of 12 people committed on November 4, 2010, in the house of a farmer Server Ametov in Kuschevskaya. The defence has treated the verdict as unfair. Five of the defendants said their last plea on November 14 – none of them admitted his guilt.

Apart from imprisonment, Sergey Tsapok was fined by 700,000 roubles.

Other defendants were sentenced to long prison terms: Nikolai Tsapok – to 20 years, Vyacheslav Tsepovyaz – to 20 years, and Vladimir Zaporozhets – to 19 years of imprisonment in a high security colony, the ITAR-TASS reports.

Meanwhile, the relatives of those assassinated in Kuschevskaya have treated the verdict as fair.