A 15-year-old girl in the central Siberian city of Barnaul has been sentenced to five and a half years in a juvenile prison for ordering her parents` killing, a local court spokesperson said Tuesday.

In the contract murder carried out by two teenage boys for less than $600, the girl`s mother was stabbed to death in her apartment, but the father survived.

Yelena Lagernikova said: "The regional court has read out a verdict to the schoolgirl convicted of ordering the murder of her parents and to the other three minors in the case. The girl was sentenced to five and a half years` incarceration, the killers to nine years, and her friend, who recruited them, received a suspended sentence."

Investigators said the girl, whose name has not been disclosed, hated her parents and complained they controlled her life. She had found, via her 16-year-old friend, two teenage boys, who agreed to kill her parents for a mere 15,000 rubles ($590).

She gave them the keys to the family apartment, and on January 25 the boys entered and waited for the parents to return from work. The mother, who was the first to come home, was stabbed 31 times. Her husband survived, as he returned later than usual that day to find his wife dead and the murderers gone.

The case was sent to court on June 7 and tried behind closed doors, as the defendants were under 18.

The age of criminal responsibility is 16 in Russia, but for grave crimes adolescents, who are found sane, can be convicted and sent to juvenile prisons at the age of 14. Criminologists are considering further lowering the criminal liability age, as the crime rate among children under 14 is rising.
sections: Accidents, Region News
areas: Siberian region