MOSCOW, March 23 (RAPSI) – The Appeals Military Court will consider an appeal against severe sentence given to soldier Ramil Shamsutdinov for deadly shooting in a military unit in 2019 on April 21, according to the court case file.

In January, the Second Eastern District Military Court sentenced Shamsutdinov to 24.5 years in high-security prison and ordered him to pay the injured party 9.8 million rubles (about $135 million) for moral harm.

Prosecutors 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 could impose not more than two-thirds of the maximum sentence on him. Thus, the defendant avoided life imprisonment.

Investigators claimed 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.