MOSCOW, October 22 (RIA Novosti) – A court in Moscow on Tuesday sentenced two former police officers to one year in jail each for failing to come to their colleague’s defense as he was being attacked by an angry mob at a city market.
The episode dates back to July, when a team of police officers was set upon by a crowd of up to 25 people as they attempted to detain a man suspected of sexually assaulting a 15-year old girl.
One officer sustained serious head injuries after being hit with brass knuckles, prosecutors said.
The officer’s former colleagues, Vladimir Cherezov and Yury Lunkov, were found guilty of negligence for allowing their fellow policeman to be attacked and not detaining his aggressors, RIA Novosti’s legal news agency RAPSI reported.
The pair pleaded not guilty.
The incident at Matveyevsky market triggered a series of city-wide inspections in what authorities said was a drive to root out crime in Moscow's markets.
