On December 3, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. In Chashniki district, a former paratrooper has been convicted for an attempted murder of a representative of another branch of service, the senior prosecutor of the department for supervision of the legality of court decisions on criminal cases of the Vitebsk region prosecutor's office, Alexey Tolkachev, told a BELTA correspondent. In May of this year, the man, who served in Afghanistan, came on business to an acquaintance in the village of Demidovichi. The visit concluded with a large feast with alcohol in a wide circle. During the conversation, it turned out that a representative of the airborne forces was present at the table. A natural question in a male company about which branch of service is cooler escalated into a major quarrel, which the conflicting parties decided to resolve with a fight on the street. The outcome was not in favour of the former paratrooper. Harbouring resentment, the VDV representative went into the house for a kitchen knife for cutting meat, and then went to take revenge on his opponent, who was not expecting a continuation of the fight, and struck him in the stomach. The paratrooper was prevented from finishing off the impudent man immediately by the agility of the offended party: even with a severe wound, the man managed to escape and lock himself away from the attacker in a friend's house. This fact, as well as timely qualified medical assistance, saved his life. "In court, the accused claimed that he did not want to and was unable to commit murder, but his actions during the conflict and the testimony of eyewitnesses indicated the opposite," noted Alexey Tolkachev. For attempted murder, the former paratrooper has been sentenced to seven years and one month of imprisonment under Part 1 of Article 139 of the Criminal Code of Belarus. The sentence has entered into legal force. -0-

BELTA