A group of vandals who stole nameplates from the "Breakthrough" memorial complex have been convicted in Vitebsk

A group of vandals who stole nameplates from the "Breakthrough" memorial complex has been convicted in Vitebsk, as reported to BelTA by Oksana Baleeva, Head of the Department for Supervision of Legality of Court Decisions in Criminal Cases of the Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office.

In the evening of November 8, 2011, three residents of Chashniki District, having planned in advance, arrived at the "Breakthrough" memorial complex near the village of Novoye Selo, Ushachi District, where they dismantled 38 memorial plates with the names of heroes of the Great Patriotic War. Then, according to a prior agreement, the vandals sold them to a resident of Beshenkovichi District. They valued the plates, which preserve the memory of the Fatherland's defenders, by weight: $1 per 1 kg. The total revenue of the offenders amounted to $1.1 thousand, while the damage caused was estimated at Br380 million.

For intentional damage to historical and cultural values and theft committed on a particularly large scale by a group of persons, a man born in 1984 was sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property, and his accomplice born in 1988 - to 6 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property. The third participant in the crime, taking into account the partial compensation of the damage caused, was sentenced to five years of restriction of liberty without being sent to an open-type correctional institution and without confiscation of property. The sentence has entered into legal force.