MOSCOW, May 24 (RAPSI) — Public prosecutors have moved to sentence former police officers of the Krasnodar Directorate of the Interior Ministry Maxim Kotomanov and Dmitry Krasilnikov to 16 and 18 years in a maximum security penal colony charged with planning to send letters with poisonous substances to diplomatic missions, the press service of the Second Western District Military Court inform RAPSI.  

Prosecutors ask the court to sentence Kotomanov to 18 years and Krasilnikov to 16 years in a strict regime penal colony; Kotomanov, additionally, is requested to be fined 1.5 million rubles (about $20,000 at the current exchange rate), according to press secretary Irina Zhirnova.

It is expected that the sentence will be made public on Tuesday. 

According to the court's database, the defendants are accused of illegal circulation of potent substances, attempted attack on persons or institutions that enjoy international protection, attempted smuggling of poisonous substances, attempted terrorist act and the creation of a terrorist community. 

Investigators allege that the former police officers planned to send letters with a poisonous substance based on mercury to employees of diplomatic missions of foreign states.