MOSCOW, August 13 (RIA Novosti) - A court in Majorca has found three Russian yachtsmen guilty of resisting arrest and sentenced them to a six-month suspended sentence and a fine, the Russian consulate general in Barcelona said on Thursday.
The three yachtsmen, who were in the Majorcan city of Palma for the prestigious Copa Del Rey sailing regatta, were arrested following an incident in the early hours of July 29. Spanish police alleged that Denis Rozhkov, Nikita Khrekov and Roman Konstantinov assaulted officers, a claim the three rigorously denied.
"The sentence is six months in prison, but suspended. There are also a number of fines," Yury Kovalko told RIA Novosti.
Kovalko said the RUS7 yachtsmen had agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of "resisting arrest" from "assaulting police." The official said they had also received a number of fines of approximately $1,000 each.
If the three men had been found guilty of police assault, then they could have faced up to three years in prison.
RUS7's owner, Kirill Podolsky said on the team website that he was unhappy with the assistance provided by the Russian consulate general.
"The Russian consulate general in Barcelona, Yury Kovalko, was very disinterested and took a position that did not give us a chance to present our point of view of the chaos the Spanish police created," Podolsky said.
"And because of the consulate's negligence we were forced to plea bargain, which was humiliating for us...despite the fact that neither the yachtsmen nor team leadership had admitted they were guilty. A trial would have dragged on for too long and excluded the athletes from the regatta. Moreover, there was the risk of deportation, which would have put an end to the yachtsmen's career in professional sailing," Podolsky said.
The regatta ended on August 8 with the RUS7 team taking fifth place, behind another Russian team, Sinergia. Spanish teams claimed first and third, with Chile securing second.
