Moscow (AFP) – Disgraced Russian footballers Pavel Mamaev and Alexander Kokorin will spend a further two months in prison after a Moscow court extended their detention for assault on Wednesday.
“The court has deliberated and grants the request of investigators to extend the detention…until February 8, 2019,” said judge Alexei Krivoruchko, quoted by Russian news agencies.
The pair committed a series of assaults on Monday, October 8, at the end of a night out in Moscow.
They attacked the driver of a television host and damaged her Mercedes. The driver was hospitalised with injuries and a criminal probe was opened.
Then they were caught on video attacking two Russian trade ministry officials in an upscale Moscow cafe.
One of the officials, Denis Pak, an ethnic Korean, was hit with a chair while eating.
On October 11, the two footballers were ordered to be detained for two months until December 8, pending their trial for “hooliganism”.
Both are Russian internationals though Kokorin, a Zenit Saint Petersburg forward, last played for the national side in late 2017, while Krasnodar midfielder Mamaev was last selected in 2016.
Two other defendants, including Kirill Kokorin, the brother of the Zenit footballer, also saw their detention extended for two months.
The attacks caused outrage in Russia, especially as Mamaev and Kokorin have been in trouble before over a night out.
The Russian Football Union suspended the pair in July 2016 after a video emerged from a Monte Carlo nightclub in which Mamaev and Kokorin allegedly spent $296,000 (258,000 euros) on a champagne-fuelled party following Euro 2016, where Russia flopped.
