The state prosecutor has asked a court in Kazakhstan to convict two men of premeditated murder in the killing of figure skater Denis Ten and sentence them to 20 years in prison.
At a hearing on January 16, the prosecutor also asked the court to convict the two men of theft and recommended a four-year sentence for a third defendant who is charged with theft and failure to report a crime.
Ten became the first Kazakh figure skater to win an Olympic medal when he earned a bronze at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. He also won medals at the world championships in 2013 and 2015.
Ten was fatally stabbed in central Almaty in July 2018, at age 25.
Investigators say suspects Arman Qudaibergenov and Nuraly Qiyasov killed him after he confronted them while they were trying to steal the side-view mirrors of his car.
Qudaibergenov and Qiyasov pleaded guilty of theft but not guilty to premeditated murder, contending that they had not planned to kill the skater.
The third defendant, Zhanar Tolybaeva, told the court that she did not see the stabbing and that she was only aware of the attempted theft of Ten’s car mirrors.
Ten trained in Moscow and the United States.
Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036
