Dmitry Tulenkov said a Volgograd trial had sentenced Alexander Sobolevsky, a junior sergeant with the airborne troops, to three and a half years in prison for hazing and driving a lower-ranking non-commissioned officer to suicide.
Investigators established that Sobolevsky used violence against a lance corporal on four occasions during service in the Volgograd Region in July 2005. Unable to stand this treatment, the lance corporal shot himself using an automatic rifle during field exercises on July 26.
Sobolevsky admitted to hitting the soldier once, but denied the other instances, labeling them slanderous.
The Sobolevsky case is the latest in a series of recent hazing cases that have caused a public outcry. In one case, a young soldier had to have his legs and genitals amputated after being tortured by colleagues for several hours in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk, 1,800 miles east of Moscow.
