ST. PETERSBURG, September 11 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – Prosecutors petition for life sentences for defendants in a case over firing at officers of a transport special-purpose police squad illegally acting as cash-in-transit guards, the United press service of St. Petersburg courts informs RAPSI on Monday.

The case is heard for the second time; Arkady Nusimovich, Gennady Levinsky, and Alexey Gevorkyan, earlier acquitted by the St. Petersburg City Court, have been unanimously found guilty and deserving no leniency by a jury after the first ruling had been reversed by Russia’s Supreme Court.

The prosecution moves for life sentences as concerns Nusimovich and Levinsky, and seeks 24 years behind bars for Gevorkyan; all defendants are to serve their punishments in maximum security prisons,  the statement reads. 

The defendants plead not guilty; the defense believes their innocence was proved in the framework of court hearings.

Prosecutors allege that in 2015 in St. Petersburg two crime figures fired at the policemen after blocking their service vehicle with a van; one officer was killed, another suffered a heavy wound. The attackers could steal 24 million rubles (about $320,000 at the current exchange rate).

According to investigators, in 2014 and 2015 officers of a transport special-purpose police squad were having a side job as cash-in-transit guards earning 50,000 rubles (about $670) a month; altogether they carried out 22 operations. The unlawful nature of their actions has been established by a court.