MOSCOW, December 30 (RAPSI) - Moscow's Golovinsky District Court on Monday found Alexei Kabanov, the founder of a popular chain of cafes in Moscow, guilty of killing and dismembering his journalist wife, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.
Kabanov was sentenced to 14 years in a maximum security prison.The court has also ordered Kabanov to pay out 1.5 million rubles (approximately $46,000) in compensatory damages to the mother of his slain wife.
Kabanov insisted that he has committed the crime in the heat of passion.
His wife Irina Kabanova worked at a well-known Russian radio station. Kabanov founded OGI, an iconic chain of cafes that were a popular meet-up place for artists, poets, and journalists in the late 1990s. He had the reputation of a sophisticated bohemian and mingled with artists.
The investigation uncovered that he killed his wife during a domestic argument after she learned he was seeing someone else. Kabanov strangled her with a computer cord while their kids were asleep in the other room. He then brought her body into the bathroom. The investigators believe that Kabanov's experience as a chef may have helped him to more easily dismember his wife's body.
According to the investigators, Kabanov then hid Irina's body parts on the balcony and posted a message on his social networking pages that his wife had gone missing.
Later, the defendant borrowed a car from his mistress and hid his wife's remains in the trunk. He planned to take the remains of her body out of town, but was detained by police after they wiretapped his phone in January.
This murder has evoked a wide response among Russian Internet users.