Man Sentenced in Lawmaker’s Death
A court sentenced a man accused of involvement in the 1998 killing of a liberal Russian lawmaker to 11 years in prison but set another convict free.
The St. Petersburg City Court sentenced Vyacheslav Lelyavin after a jury last week found him guilty of being a member of an armed gang that organized the killing of Galina V. Starovoitova but found he was not involved in the actual slaying.
Jurors found another suspect, Pavel Stekhnovsky, guilty of buying the rifle used to shoot Starovoitova but said prosecutors did not prove he knew the gun was intended for the killing. The court freed him.
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