MOSCOW, April 3 (RAPSI) – Moscow’s Presnensky District Court on Wednesday refused to release Zenit St. Petersburg’s football player Alexander Kokorin and Krasnodar’s Pavel Mamayev and extended their detention in a hooliganism case until September 25, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

On Wednesday, the court held a preliminary hearing in the case behind closed doors. According to defense, over 40 witnesses will be questioned during the trial. The first hearing on merits is scheduled for April 9.

Two other defendants are Kokorin’s younger brother Kirill and children’s football coach Alexander Protasovitsky.

The four men were arrested on October 11 and charged with hooliganism, battery and intended bodily injury.

The defendants initiated two fights in central Moscow in the early morning of October 11. According to the police, a driver of a Russian TV journalist received a nose fracture during the first incident on a street in central Moscow.

Two hours later, Ministry of industry and trade official Denis Pak and CEO of the Central Scientific Research Automobile and Automotive Engines Institute Sergey Gaysin were assaulted by the footballers in a coffee bar and had to undergo medical treatment, the police stated. Pak reportedly sustained a concussion. The café’s video records showed one of the sportsmen beating up Pak with chair.

The footballers pleaded partially guilty to an incident with the driver. According to attorney Igor Bushmanov representing Mamayev, his client has paid out damage caused to the beaten driver.