"On February 20-28, five cases will be heard," the spokesman said. "The defendants are five privates accused of brutality toward eight to ten other privates."
All the alleged victims are continuing their service, though some of them have been transferred to other units, the source said.
The hazing incidents were registered in Chelyabinsk, 1,180 miles east of Moscow, in the middle of last year, and have no connection with the tragedy of Private Andrei Sychev, the spokesman said. Sychev had to have both of his legs and genitals amputated after allegedly being beaten and tortured during the New Year's Eve holidays. The case caused an outcry across the country.
Another high-profile incident came in Russia's Far East last May, when soldier Yevgeny Koblov fled his military unit after being allegedly beaten up and went into hiding in a basement for 23 days without food. As a result of the beatings he had suffered and the cold in the basement, he lost the use of his legs and was unable to move before he was found by a plumber. Doctors later amputated both of the conscripts' legs up to the knee.
According to official Russian statistics, 16 servicemen died in incidents involving bullying last year, but experts contend the actual number is much higher, as the official figures do not take into account hazing-related suicides.
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov addressed the lower chamber of parliament Wednesday to report on the rise in hazing incidents in the country and measures to prevent it.
