YAKUTSK. - Judicial board on criminal cases of Yakutia Supreme Court on August 11 upheld the conviction Vanik Nersisyan imposed by Yakutsk City Court on June 10 this year. 

Armenian citizen was charged with rape (Article 131, part 1 of Russian Criminal Code) and in abandonment in danger (Article 125 of Russian Criminal Code) of student Kristina Lebedeva and sentenced to four and a half years’ imprisonment to be served in a penal colony.

In addition, the court granted a civil suit by Christina and ordered the convict to pay 300 thousand rubles for moral detriment.

20-year-old girl was thrown out of a car in January and miraculously survived. However she received strong frostbites lost all fingers on both hands.

Christina and her lawyer Galina Danilova did not appeal the verdict but convicted Nersisyan disagreed with the court and filed an appeal, requesting to revoke the sentence.

After reviewing the case materials, discussing the reasons of the complaint, the panel of judges came to the conclusion that Nersisyan’s arguments are insolvent and left the verdict of Yakutsk City Court unchanged.