Soldiers Sentenced for Killing Hazers

Two soldiers who killed six of their comrades in revenge for brutal hazing have been sentenced to death by a military court, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The killings occurred at a border post on the island of Tanfilyev in the Russian Far East in March, 1994. The soldiers, Andrei Bogdashin and Dmitry Belkov, broke into the base dormitory and sprayed it with automatic gunfire, killing six soldiers.

Both soldiers told investigators they wanted to avenge harassment by older soldiers, who had been regularly beating and humiliating them, said the daily Moskovsky Komsomolets.