The Kondopoga City Court convicted Sergei Mozgalev and Yury Pliyev of hooliganism for attacking an Azeri bartender in the town's Chaika restaurant in August, Interfax reported. Mozgalev, who was also convicted of battery, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, while Pliyev received eight months.
Prosecutors had asked that Mozgalev and Pliyev be sentenced to five and 2 1/5 years, respectively.
Mozgalev plans to appeal. But Pliyev's lawyer, Valery Cherkasov, said his client would accept the ruling because he had spent five months in detention. "He will be out in three months," Cherkasov said on Rossia television.
Mozgalev and Pliyev admitted in court Monday that they had attacked and beaten the bartender. The bartender told his employer, who in turn summoned a group of knife-wielding Chechen natives who attacked diners, killing two ethnic Russians. Mozgalev and Pliyev maintained that they did not instigate the fight, Rossia reported.
After the brawl, people armed with Molotov cocktails torched businesses owned by natives of the Caucasus.
Prosecutors have charged former Kondopoga police official Alexander Chechelnitsky with negligence for not taking adequate measures to prevent the riots, Itar-Tass reported Tuesday.
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