On April 12, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. A fare dodger from Vitebsk has been sentenced to four years in prison for assaulting another passenger, Dmitry Orekhva, senior prosecutor of the department for supervision of the legality of court decisions in criminal cases of the Vitebsk region prosecutor's office, told a BELTA correspondent. The high-profile incident occurred in Vitebsk in October 2011. A man, who was travelling on a trolleybus along Frunze Avenue during the day, got off at a stop together with a fare dodger who refused to pay for the ride, and made a remark to him. In the ensuing conflict, the fare dodger used a knife he had with him as an argument, stabbing his opponent in the chest. Despite the serious injury, the victim managed to report the incident via the 102 hotline and provide a description of the offender. The prompt reaction of law enforcement officers and the professionalism of doctors made it possible to save the life of the injured man, as well as to detain the attacker within minutes. The latter, as it later turned out, had already been prosecuted for theft and had been held administratively liable for petty theft more than a hundred times. -0-

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