PETROZAVODSK, Russia, April 1 (UPI) -- Six North Caucasus residents accused of inciting ethnic violence in a town near the border with Finland were sentenced to prison Thursday by a court in Russia.
The six were sentenced by the Supreme Court in the northwest Republic of Karelia on charges ranging from homicide to hooliganism, RIA Novosti reported.
The longest sentence, a term of 22 years, was given to a person charged with killing two residents of the town of Kondopoga.
The trouble in Kondopoga began Aug. 30, 2006, when two local residents were killed and five others injured in a restaurant brawl with ethnic Chechens, RIA Novosti said.
The fight triggered racially motivated violence that resulted in the detention of 109 people on suspicion of involvement in pogroms and arson attacks.
