A sergeant sentenced to 3.5 years for "dedovschina" (hazing) in Volgograd

The Volgograd garrison military tribunal has sentenced junior sergeant Alexander Sobolevskiy, accused of causing his comrade-in-arms to commit suicide, to three and a half years of imprisonment at a minimum security penal colony.

On Friday, the court reported that Alexander Sobolevskiy, junior sergeant of airborne forces, born in 1983, was found guilty under items "а" and "b", part 3 of Art. 286 of the CC ("abuse of power causing grave consequences"). "As it follows from the investigation files, the defendant applied physical violence and moral pressure to his subordinate lance-corporate N. Yevtifiev, thereby causing him to commit suicide. Tired of harassment, Yevtifiev shot himself with a machine-gun during manoeuvres in July 2005," reported court employees.

The defendant's comrades-in-arms acted as witnesses. The criminal file includes four proved incidents of the defendant's criminal acts.

The defendant has partially pleaded guilty. "Sobolevskiy acknowledged only one incident that he had lightly punched the lance-corporate, but he completely denied his guilt in the serviceman's suicide," said the Volgograd court representative, reports "Interfax."

For reference, new facts of offences based on abuse of powers are being revealed in the Russian army. The campaign started with the case of Andrei Sychov who lost his legs and genitals in the army. According to official 2005 statistics, 20,390 crimes connected with non-statutory relations were registered.