MOSCOW, March 29 (RIA Novosti) - A court in the Russian Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk has sentenced two gang members, who carried out attacks on nine Chinese citizens between 2003-2005, to 18 and 23 years in prison, territorial prosecutors said Thursday.
The court said that Andrei Mirny and Nikolai Avdeyev together with another two people were members of an armed gang that targeted Chinese nationals. They will serve the sentence in a high-security penal colony.
"The defendants were found guilty of banditry, murder, organized robbery, and inflicting serious bodily injury. Mirny has also been convicted of falsifying vehicles' license plates," a representative of the prosecutor's office said.
The gang was equipped with firearms, police uniforms, radios, and handcuffs. The total damage inflicted on the victims was estimated at 1.5 million rubles ($57,700).
Mirny was given 23 years and Avdeyev 18 years in prison. A search for the two other gang members is underway.
