The three defendants - conscripts from Russia's North Caucasus republic of North Ossetia - were found guilty of repeatedly beating up a colleague, a court official said. In one of the incidents in November 2005, the three young men beat up the soldier for refusing to bring them vodka and juice. The same conscript was beaten twice afterward.
The defendants pleaded non-guilty and accused the other soldiers in the unit of lying against them on grounds of racial discrimination. The court, however, dismissed these comments.
Military prosecutors in the Novosibirsk garrison opened the criminal case after doctors found injuries on the body of the soldier, who had been drafted from Novosibirsk.
The court found the defendants guilty of hazing and extortion.
Earlier on Friday, a garrison court in Novosibirsk passed a verdict on another bullying incident in the Russian army. The court handed down a suspended three-year sentence to Junior Sergeant Stepan Khodorov, a commander in a local unit, after he was convicted of beating up 18-year-old Private Valery Makhnovsky.
The conscript was sent to the hospital with facial injuries on January 14, but only three days later did Makhnovsky say the injuries had been inflicted by Khodorov.
