MOSCOW, December 24, (RAPSI) - A court in the Siberian city of Sayanogorsk has sentenced seven men, four of whom received various terms in prison over the Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydroelectric Power Plant disaster in 2009, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told journalists on Wednesday.

Russia’s largest hydroelectric power plant operated by RusHydro JSC was shut down on August 17 following the biggest accident in the history of the country’s hydroelectric power industry. Water flooded the turbine hall destroying three power units and damaging the other seven, with a capacity of 640 MW each. The investigation found that the staff neglected safety regulations by operating Unit 2 that was in unsatisfactory condition.

The former director of the plant, Nikolai Nevolko, and the former chief engineer of the plant, Andrei Mitrofanov, were sentenced to six years in prison each.

Former deputy chief engineers, Yevgeny Shervarli and Gennady Nikitenko, received five and a half years, and five years and nine months respectively.

Specialists of the equipment monitoring service, Alexander Matviyenko and Alexander Klyukach, were given a four-and-a-half suspended sentence each.

Their coworker, Vladimir Beloborodov, was amnestied.