Four Turks sentenced to 80 years for serving bootlegged alcohol that killed five Russians

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Hürriyet Photo

A Turkish court has sentenced four Turkish nationals to over 80 years in prison each for responsibility in the deaths of five Russian tourists who died after drinking bootlegged alcohol on a yacht in Bodrum in May 2011.

“The Muğla 2nd Court of Serious Crimes sentenced each of the four suspects to 16 years for each of the five Russian tourists who died from the poisoning from the counterfeit drinks. The four suspects also received seven months of jail time for the other tourists who were poisoned on the same yacht but were hospitalized and survived,” the victims’ families’ lawyer, Ruhittin Kader, told the Hürriyet Daily News today.

All four men were linked to the production and distribution of counterfeit alcohol.

Meanwhile, three other Turkish nationals, including the owner of the yacht and the crew members, were separately sentenced to seven years in prison.

Maria Shalyapina, 28, Auilia Zalyaeva, 22, Alexandr Zhuchkov, 24, Marina Sheveleva, 22, and Viktoria Nikoloeva, 22, all died in May 2011 in the incident.