ST. PETERSBURG, December 14 (RAPSI) – The prosecution on Monday demanded 15 years behind bars collectively for history professor Oleg Sokolov charged with killing his postgraduate student Anastasia Yeshchenko and arms trafficking, the United press service of St. Petersburg courts reports.

In their demand prosecutors included such mitigative circumstances as old parents of the defendant, his health condition and science merits.

According to investigators, rescuers pulled then 63-year reader out of a local river early on November 9, 2019 and hospitalized him. The woman’s severed hands and a nonlethal pistol were found in his backpack. Other parts of her body were found in his flat. The man was arrested when left the hospital the next day. He voluntary surrendered.

The victim was identified as the 24-year postgraduate student of the St. Petersburg State University and Sokolov’s partner.

The professor pleaded guilty. He said that he gunned the woman and broke up her body.

Sokolov is a historian and ideologist of reconstruction of Napoleonic period battles. He has been conferred the Legion of Honor, the French national award instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte.