KONDOPOGA (Karelia), November 14 (RIA Novosti) - A court in Kondopoga in northwest Russia ruled Tuesday that the case of a defendant accused of starting a brawl in the city in early September, which led to mass riots, be returned to prosecutors.

A confrontation between local Russians in Kondopoga, in the Republic of Karelia, and Caucasus nationals, left at least two city residents dead and culminated in nationalist riots that shook the town, as residents demanded that non-Russians be expelled.

The court upheld a motion forwarded by the defendant's lawyers, who asked the court to combine the case of their defendant Sergei Mozgalev with the case of Yury Pliyev, who investigators determined was also among the initiators of the brawl at the Chaika restaurant.

Pliyev escaped from the scene of the brawl at the restaurant, but was arrested two months later in St. Petersburg.

Natalya Gorushneva, a lawyer representing Mozgalev, said that Pliyev's testimony "could be extremely important in establishing all the details of the case," but he cannot give evidence in the court as a witness because he is a defendant in a separate case related to the Kondopoga unrest.

The prosecutors will now have to combine the two cases into one in order to bring it before a court once again.

Earlier in October, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said that Mozgalev has been charged with hooliganism, as well as assault and battery, under several provisions of the Russian Criminal Law Code.