MOSCOW, March 4 (RAPSI) – The Supreme Court of the Republic of Buryatia, a Russia’s northern region, has sentenced three defendants in the case over the murder of Yury Vlasko, the two-time European junior freestyle wrestling champion, to prison terms ranging from 12 to 17 years, according to the Republican Investigative Committee’s directorate on Monday.

Three men were found guilty of gang murder and are to spend 12, 16,5 and 17 years in a maximum security penal colony.

In August 2017, two men were arrested, charged with murder of Vlasko, and detained. One of them admitted his involvement in the sportsman’s death but claimed that he was defending himself from the wrestler. Investigators, however, doubted this version as it contradicted testimony of witnesses. The third man allegedly involved in the murder was arrested in October 2017.

According to investigators’ and court’s findings, on the night of July 28 to 29, 2017, several participants of a wrestling tournament in the city of Ulan-Ude arrived at the lake Baikal. There, on the request of a friend, Vlasko intervened in a conflict between sportsmen and local residents leading to a fight. One of the defendants stabbed Vlasko in the chest while the other one repeatedly hit him in a head with a metal rod.