MOSCOW, January 21 (RAPSI) – The Second Eastern District Military Court on Thursday sentenced soldier Ramil Shamsutdinov to 24.5 years in high-security prison for deadly shooting in a military unit in 2019, according to information published on the court’s website.

He was also ordered to pay the injured party 9.8 million rubles (about $135 million) for moral harm.

Prosecutors earlier demanded 25 years behind bars for the defendant.

In late December, jury issued a verdict of guilty against Shamsutdinov but held the defendant deserved leniency. When delivering sentence, a court is to consider mitigating circumstances but cannot take aggravating circumstances into account. According to the jury verdict, a judge may impose not more than two-thirds of the maximum sentence on him. Thus, the defendant will avoid life imprisonment, Chikov stated.

Investigators claim that on October 25, 2019, Shamsutdinov shot two officers and six soldiers dead in the military unit where he served. Two other people suffered gunshot wounds. On October 28, a garrison military court in Chita, a city in Russia’s Zabaikalye Territory, placed Shamsutdinov in detention.