On Tuesday, July 29, another fiercely hot day, Judge Brize delivered his verdict. All six men were found guilty: Yuri Laushkin was given two years in prison; Alexander Kovalenko, three; and Boris Rogozhkin, five. All three were taken into custody in the courtroom. Brukhanov, Fomin, and Dyatlov each received the maximum sentence: ten years’ confinement in a penal colony. Every one of them remained stoic except Fomin, who wept in the dock. Valentina Brukhanov fainted. Afterward, one of the investigators told her, “Now you can terminate your marriage at any time.”
