18 Dec 2018 13:03

Mamaev pays driver 500,000 rubles in damages

MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) - FC Krasnodar midfielder Pavel Mamaev, who is charged with hooliganism, told a court that he has paid 500,000 rubles in damages to driver Vitaly Solovchuk.

"I paid 500,000 rubles in compensation for the damage caused to the aggrieved party [Solovchuk]. I believe this is a worthy compensation, when in practice people pay 30,000-50,000 rubles for damages," Mamaev said by video link during the arguments of the parties at Moscow's Tverskoi District Court.

Investigators have nearly finished collecting evidence, so he is unable to influence the course if the investigation, he said. In this regard, he requested that the court change his measure of restraint to release on bail or house arrest.

"Allow me to celebrate the New Year with my children, near my hearth and home," he said.

The Moscow City Court is now hearing the defense team's appeals against the extension of the arrests of Mamaev, Alexander Kokorin, his younger brother Kirill, and Alexander Protasovitsky.

The soccer players and Protasovitsky were charged with two instances of battery and hooliganism, and Kirill Kokorin was charged with three.

On October 11-12, the Tverskoi District Court sanctioned the arrest of all of the defendants.

The criminal case was initiated over two fights involving Kokorin and Mamaev in Moscow in the morning of October 8. One of them took place near the Pekin Hotel. Vitaly Solovchuk, a driver of Olga Ushakova, an employee of Channel One, was injured. The second occurred at the cafe Kofemania on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street; federal officials Pak and Sergei Gaisin sustained injuries.

The defense insists that the men's actions should be qualified only as battery, not hooliganism. The soccer players apologized to the aggrieved party and expressed readiness to make amends and provide compensation.

According to lawyers, it was established that the aggrieved party suffered minor or no injuries.

Mamaev's lawyer Igor Bushmanov said earlier that the Moscow Prosecutor's Office had conducted an inquiry at his request and detected a number of violations in the investigation of the criminal case.

Moscow City Court Judge Lyubov Nikolenko said that the court will take the results of examinations into consideration in making its final decision.