VLADIVOSTOK. Jan 29 (Interfax) - Jurors have retired to the jury room to begin deliberating on verdict in the "Primorsky guerrillas" trial, an Interfax correspondent reported from the Primorsky territorial court.
The presiding judge gave instructions to the jury. He asked for a fair evaluation of everything they had heard during the trial and that they disregard public opinion about the case.
"We have the right to expect a comprehensive verdict. I urge you to rely only on your memory and on things you have learned rather than on the opinion of others," the judge told the jurors.
He handed over a list of questions approved by the trial sides to the jurors. The list was 106 pages long. The jury will answer more than 200 questions about the culpability of the defendants in 23 crimes or their innocence.
The prosecutor asked the jury to find the defendants guilty of killing four residents of the town of Kirovsky, attacks against police officers, assaults and robberies. He said their culpability was proven in court.
The defense asked the jury for lenience. The defendants denied their culpability.
The jury of three men and nine women will make a decision in the "guerrilla" case.
Brothers Alexander and Vadim Kovtun, Roman Savchenko, Maxim Kirillov, Vladimir Ilyutikov and Alexei Nikitin, residents of the Kirovsky district of the Primorsky territory, are standing trial.
They are accused of a series of murders, banditry, assault, document theft, illegal acquisition, storing and carrying of weapons, premeditated property damage, attacks against police officers, arms theft, robberies and car hijacks.
The defendants made their last plea on January 22. They said they were not guilty of murdering police officers and blamed the gang members who committed suicide in the process of their detention for the crime.