Case on massacre in Kuschevskaya to be tried by jury in Krasnodar

The main motive for the crimes committed by Sergey Tsapok and members of his gang in the village of Kuschevskaya, Krasnodar Territory, was revenge. This was announced today at a press conference in Rostov-on-Don by officials of the Department for the Southern Federal District (SFD) of the Russian General Prosecutor's Office (GPO). The case of crimes committed by the gang, including the massacre committed in Ametov's house, will be considered by the Krasnodar Territorial Court with participation of a jury.

Today, the ICRF has reported that the case about the massacre committed in Kuschevskaya in November 2010 was sent to the court. This case, like several other crimes committed by Tsapok's gang will be considered by the court and jury, Vyacheslav Konushkin, the head of the Department of the GPO in the SFD, said at a press conference in Rostov-on-Don.

According to Mr Konushkin, in the course of the investigation of this case, 12 persons were attracted; four of them have already been convicted.

Currently, there are six defendants in the case; of them only one – Alexei Chernykh – has fully admitted his guilt. As reported by Yulia Kotsba, Deputy Head of the Department of the GPO for the SFD and the head of the division for supervising operative-search and procedural activities, other defendants have pled guilty only partially.

She added that only one of the victims filed a civil lawsuit for compensation of damage – the only survivor of the Ametov family claims one billion roubles of compensation.

According to Ms Kotsba, the main motive of the murders and murder attempts of Sergey Tsapok and his gang was revenge for the alleged murder of Sergey's brother – Nikolai Tsapok. "It is now established that Nikolai Tsapok was killed by a certain Palkin. This criminal case has already been sent to the court for consideration on the merits," said Kotsba.