Eleven men convicted of being members of a brutal organized crime group received prison sentences of up to 24 years Wednesday, and one of them, who had expected to be released for cooperating with investigators, fainted in shock in the courtroom.
The defendants, members of the Orekhovskaya-Medvedkovskaya crime group, committed scores of violent crimes in the 1990s and killed 18 people, including reputed hit man Alexander Solonik and his girlfriend, prosecutors said.
A jury convicted the 11 men on Aug. 10, and Moscow City Court Judge Vladimir Usev handed down the prison sentences Wednesday.
Oleg Pylev, who was convicted as one of the group's leaders, received the toughest sentence, 24 years.
Alexander Pustovalov, a reputed hit man known as Sasha the Soldier because of his former military service, got 23 years, which will be tacked on to a 22-year sentence he received last year in connection with a series of contract killings. Prosecutors said Pustovalov strangled Solonik and later dismembered his girlfriend in Greece in 1997.
After the jury delivered its guilty verdict last week, Prosecutor Anton Karetnikov asked that Pylev be sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Karetnikov also asked that defendants Andrei Filippov and Oleg Tolstikov be given eight-year suspended sentences because they had provided invaluable assistance to the prosecution's case.
Filippov and Tolstikov were the only defendants allowed to attend Wednesday's sentencing in the packed courtroom rather than in the two defendants' cages with bulletproof glass.
The judge sentenced Filippov to 8 1/2 years and Tolstikov to four years in prison. Upon hearing his sentence, Filippov fainted, falling into the arms of the people behind him in the courtroom. Filippov was handed a bottle of water, and he and Tolstikov were later led away by guards. Karetnikov said he was satisfied with the decision, although he declined to comment further.
Mikhail Fomin, a lawyer representing victims' families, said he was surprised that Filippov and Tolstikov had not been given suspended sentences.
"We didn't expect that the judge would give people who actively helped solve crimes sentences longer than those requested by the state prosecutor," Fomin told reporters. "Overall, we are satisfied that the main gang members received long sentences," he added. Fomin said he hoped the trial would mark the "end of the banditry" of the 1990s.
Also sentenced were Sergei Makhalin (22 years), Vyacheslav Ponomaryov (20 years), Alexei Kondratyev (15 years), Vladimir Gribkov and Alexander Fedin (12 years), Andrei Gusev (nine years) and Alexei Yakovlev (three years, eight months).
Gribkov, whom prosecutors had asked be sentenced to 11 years, asked the court for forgiveness last week.
"The people's court has issued a just verdict," Gribkov said, Interfax reported. "Regardless of the fact that lawyers tried to minimize our involvement, our people have issued a just decision regarding our punishment for our collaboration."
Orekhovskaya, which rose to prominence for racketeering in the early 1990s, is thought to have organized the slayings of at least 35 people, including an investigator, a senior police official and many rival gangsters. The group's influence all but vanished after a series of arrests in the late 1990s. Pylev, the convicted leader, headed a brigade of hit men inside the group known as the Medvedkovskiye, Andrei Khryapov, a senior detective in the city police's criminal investigations department, told Gazeta.ru.
The brigade took care of the dirty work for the group's leaders, taking out rival crime bosses and businessmen who declined to "cooperate," Khryapov said.
With most of the group's founders having been killed by 1997, Pylev and his brother Andrei, along with Sergei Butorin, took over the group, Izvestia reported. Butorin is serving an eight-year prison term in Spain.
Spanish police arrested Andrei "The Dwarf" Pylev at his luxurious villa in the elite resort of Marbella in August 2003. Investigators say he oversaw a chunk of the group's finances. Oleg Pylev was extradited from Ukraine in 2003.
The slaying of Solonik was perhaps the group's most high-profile crime.
Solonik, a former soldier and police officer nicknamed Sasha Makedonsky for his deftness at simultaneously firing pistols in both hands "Macedonian-style," fled to Greece after escaping from Matrosskaya Tishina prison in 1995. His body was found on Feb. 2, 1997, near Athens. He had been strangled and wrapped in plastic bags.
Three months later, a suitcase, bag and towel containing the dismembered body of model Svetlana Kotova were found near Solonik's villa. Kotova and Solonik were romantically linked, media reported. Until last week's verdict, Pustovalov had been the only person convicted in connection with Solonik's death. Gusev was convicted as an accomplice in the slaying.
The defendants, members of the Orekhovskaya-Medvedkovskaya crime group, committed scores of violent crimes in the 1990s and killed 18 people, including reputed hit man Alexander Solonik and his girlfriend, prosecutors said.
A jury convicted the 11 men on Aug. 10, and Moscow City Court Judge Vladimir Usev handed down the prison sentences Wednesday.
Oleg Pylev, who was convicted as one of the group's leaders, received the toughest sentence, 24 years.
Alexander Pustovalov, a reputed hit man known as Sasha the Soldier because of his former military service, got 23 years, which will be tacked on to a 22-year sentence he received last year in connection with a series of contract killings. Prosecutors said Pustovalov strangled Solonik and later dismembered his girlfriend in Greece in 1997.
After the jury delivered its guilty verdict last week, Prosecutor Anton Karetnikov asked that Pylev be sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Karetnikov also asked that defendants Andrei Filippov and Oleg Tolstikov be given eight-year suspended sentences because they had provided invaluable assistance to the prosecution's case.
Filippov and Tolstikov were the only defendants allowed to attend Wednesday's sentencing in the packed courtroom rather than in the two defendants' cages with bulletproof glass.
The judge sentenced Filippov to 8 1/2 years and Tolstikov to four years in prison. Upon hearing his sentence, Filippov fainted, falling into the arms of the people behind him in the courtroom. Filippov was handed a bottle of water, and he and Tolstikov were later led away by guards. Karetnikov said he was satisfied with the decision, although he declined to comment further.
Mikhail Fomin, a lawyer representing victims' families, said he was surprised that Filippov and Tolstikov had not been given suspended sentences.
"We didn't expect that the judge would give people who actively helped solve crimes sentences longer than those requested by the state prosecutor," Fomin told reporters. "Overall, we are satisfied that the main gang members received long sentences," he added. Fomin said he hoped the trial would mark the "end of the banditry" of the 1990s.
Also sentenced were Sergei Makhalin (22 years), Vyacheslav Ponomaryov (20 years), Alexei Kondratyev (15 years), Vladimir Gribkov and Alexander Fedin (12 years), Andrei Gusev (nine years) and Alexei Yakovlev (three years, eight months).
Gribkov, whom prosecutors had asked be sentenced to 11 years, asked the court for forgiveness last week.
"The people's court has issued a just verdict," Gribkov said, Interfax reported. "Regardless of the fact that lawyers tried to minimize our involvement, our people have issued a just decision regarding our punishment for our collaboration."
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The brigade took care of the dirty work for the group's leaders, taking out rival crime bosses and businessmen who declined to "cooperate," Khryapov said.
With most of the group's founders having been killed by 1997, Pylev and his brother Andrei, along with Sergei Butorin, took over the group, Izvestia reported. Butorin is serving an eight-year prison term in Spain.
Spanish police arrested Andrei "The Dwarf" Pylev at his luxurious villa in the elite resort of Marbella in August 2003. Investigators say he oversaw a chunk of the group's finances. Oleg Pylev was extradited from Ukraine in 2003.
The slaying of Solonik was perhaps the group's most high-profile crime.
Solonik, a former soldier and police officer nicknamed Sasha Makedonsky for his deftness at simultaneously firing pistols in both hands "Macedonian-style," fled to Greece after escaping from Matrosskaya Tishina prison in 1995. His body was found on Feb. 2, 1997, near Athens. He had been strangled and wrapped in plastic bags.
Three months later, a suitcase, bag and towel containing the dismembered body of model Svetlana Kotova were found near Solonik's villa. Kotova and Solonik were romantically linked, media reported. Until last week's verdict, Pustovalov had been the only person convicted in connection with Solonik's death. Gusev was convicted as an accomplice in the slaying.