The Moscow City Court sentenced 60-year-old Yuri Khomchenko to life imprisonment in a special regime colony in the case of arson of a dormitory, which resulted in the death of seven people, the Moscow prosecutor's office reported.
Khomchenko's sentence was imposed on the basis of an indictment jury verdict. The court found him guilty in the case of murder of seven people committed in a generally dangerous manner, attempted murder, intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm, deliberate causing minor harm to health and intentional destruction and damage to property.
The fire occurred on February 21, 2023 in a 16-story building on International Street. On the first four floors there is the MKM Hotel, above — a former hostel, transferred to the housing stock.
The court found that Khomchenko did not like the noise from the neighboring apartment, he quarreled with his neighbors and “on the basis of personal hostility, he decided to commit the murder of two sisters and their seven children living in the two-room apartment next to him, four of them which are minors.» At that moment the man was drunk.
Khomchenko approached the neighbors’ apartment, placed one of the bags with things in the hallway on the threshold, doused it with flammable liquid and set it on fire, “thereby blocking the evacuation exit for the residents.”
Seven people were killed, including two children, and seven more people were injured. The apartments were “in complete disrepair,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The court satisfied the civil claims of the victims in the amount of more than 15 million rubles.