A Moscow region court has handed down a seven-year prison sentence to an Uzbek native found guilty of killing a Russian Spartak football fan, in a case that stoked fears of ethnically charged riots earlier this year.
The court also ordered Zhakhongir Akhmedov to pay 1 million rubles ($22,200) to the family of his victim, Leonid Saffyanikov, who died from his injuries in hospital this May following the altercation in the Moscow suburb Pushkino, the Investigative Committee was cited as saying by the Interfax news agency.
Akhmedov was found guilty of inflicting severe injuries that led to death and sentenced to seven years and three months in prison, the report added.
The killing prompted apparent friends of Saffyanikov to stage a rally in Pushkino and call for revenge on workers from Central Asia at Moscow's markets.
Akhmedov, a Pushkino resident who was born in Uzbekistan, fled to his homeland after the altercation, but was detained and extradited to Russia, investigators said at that time.
The incident followed mass riots in Moscow's Biryulyovo district last fall over the suspected stabbing of an ethnic Russian by an Azeri national. More than 20 people were injured and hundreds were detained during the riots.
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