MOSCOW, December 25 (RAPSI) – Organizer behind the murder of a former State Duma lawmaker Galina Starovoitova in 1998 Yury Kolchin won’t be released on parole, the United press-service of St. Petersburg courts has told RAPSI.

Earlier, Kolchin’s attorney Yevgeny Safronov filed a request for an early release of his client with a court in the Bryansk region. During the court hearings, a representative of a penal colony said that Kolchin is behind 25 violations and has a negative characterization in the facility. The court dismissed the request.

Starovoitova was killed in St. Petersburg in November 1998. Her assistant Ruslan Linkov was wounded in the attack. Eight suspects, including Kolchin, a former employee of Russia’s military intelligence service (GRU), were charged with taking part in the assassination. In June 2005, a court in St. Petersburg sentenced all the men to prison terms varying from 11 to 23.5 years. Kolchin himself was sentenced to 20 years.