3 Russians given long sentences for murders described as satanic ritual killings

MOSCOW — A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced three people to up to life in prison for leading people into the woods of northern Russia and murdering them in what were described as satanic rituals, Russia's Investigative Committee said.

A committee statement said Andrei Tregubenko was given a life sentence in connection with three killings. He and a woman, Olga Bolsakova — both described as adherents of satanism — lured a girl into a forest in the Karelia region and killed her in 2016. Two months later, they and two others, Tatiana Deryugina and Alexander Perevozchikov-Khmury, killed a man in the woods in the Leningrad region, the statement said.

Tregubenko also stabbed a man to death in an argument in the Moscow region, then he and the three others performed a ritual with the victim's blood, the committee said.

Deryugina and Perevozchikov-Khmury were sentenced to 13 and 15 years in prison, respectively. The committee statement said Bolshakova previously was sentenced to an unspecified term.