MOSCOW, June 20 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court has upheld Alexandra Lotkova’s sentence for shooting a non-lethal weapon in the metro on alleged self-defense grounds, RAPSI learned Thursday in court.

According to the investigators, Lotkova, a third-year student at the Plekhanov Economics University, injured Ivan Belousov and Ibragim Kurbanov after firing a non-lethal weapon in the metro in May 2012.

Non-lethal weapons are intended to be less likely to kill a living target than conventional weapons. It is generally accepted that casualties may occur wherever force is applied, but non-lethal weapons attempt to minimize this risk.

Lotkova claimed that she was innocent and stated that she started shooting to prevent an impending conflict that two young men had initiated against her and her friends. However, the victims claimed that Lotkova's friends initiated the quarrel.

The Tverskoy District Court ruled last March that Lotkova was guilty of intentionally inflicting serious harm on another individual's health, which could have resulted in up to eight years in prison. The court also ruled that the year that Lotkova spent under house arrest before the trial would count toward her sentence.

Defense attorney Aleksey Parshin claimed the sentence to be ungrounded and based on allegations. The young men were drunken and started the conflict, he said in court. Besides it was Lotkova who visited one of the injured men while he was in hospital to apologize, Parshin added.