Vyacheslav Akatov, a special reporter for TV Center, controlled by the Moscow government, was found dead in a rented apartment in Mytishchi, in the Moscow Region, on May 27.
A spokesman for the Prosecutor's Office of the Moscow Region said Ukrainian citizen Pavel Gordiichuk, 19, would serve a three-year prison term in a high-security penal colony.
"Gordiichuk became acquainted with Akatov on the Internet, and arrived in Moscow at his invitation on May 21, 2006," the spokesman said. "The two men quarreled in Akatov's apartment in Mytishchi and Gordiichuk hit the journalist several times with an iron and then with a dumbbell. After that, Gordiichuk left for Ukraine and was detained there."
The spokesman said the court had taken into account a number of mitigating circumstances, including Gordiichuk's guilty plea and show of remorse.
