MOSCOW, June 17 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Wednesday postponed appeals against sentence of football players Alexander Kokorin and Pavel Mamayev until July 6, the court’s press office told RAPSI.

The hearing was adjourned because of the absence of a lawyer and in order to provide the appearance of the footballers in it.

In May, the Second Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction forwarded the case back to the Moscow City Court for reconsideration. According to a representative of the court, the judicial panel reversed an appeals instance sentence against the athletes because of serious criminal and procedure violations during its delivery.

The four men were arrested on October 11, 2018, and charged with hooliganism, battery and intended bodily injury. The defendants initiated two fights in central Moscow in the early morning of that day. 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.

In May 2019, Kokorin and Mamayev were sentenced to 18 and 17 months in penal colony respectively. Kokorin’s younger brother Kirill and children’s football coach Alexander Protasovitsky received 18 and 17 months in penal colony respectively as requested by the prosecution. The men were found guilty of intended infliction of minor harm to health from molester motives. However, Kokorin’s younger brother was acquitted of beating CEO of the Central Scientific Research Automobile and Automotive Engines Institute Sergey Gaysin.

In September, Kokorin, his brother and Mamayev were granted parole and released from prison.