MOSCOW, August 25 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow City Court sentenced a 39-year-old man from Moscow, who was found guilty of the murder of one of two Roman Catholic priests in October last year, to 14 years in prison on Tuesday.
Victor Betancourt, 42, was found bludgeoned to death with a dumbbell in his central Moscow apartment. The court found Mikhail Orekhov guilty of killing Betancourt, but they acquitted him of the murder of another priest, Otto Messmer.
"In order to restore social justice the court believes that the defendant should only be held in conditions isolated from society," Judge Oleg Gaidar said in sentencing.
He added that Orekhov was not mentally unstable in any way and was sane at the time he committed the crime.
Media reports earlier said Orekhov, 39, had killed Betancourt, former head of the Russian Independent Region of the Society of Jesus, in a drunken, frenzied attack after the priest allegedly made sexual advances. He was reported to have murdered Messmer, a Colombian priest who arrived later, to cover the first killing.
