Yury Sitnikov, the organizer of the hostage-taking, was sentenced to life imprisonment. The other defendants, Alexei Pukhteyev and Vadim Gorchakov, were sentenced to terms of 30 and 14 years, respectively.
On September 4, 2006 the three inmates at the pre-trial detention center to the southeast of Moscow took the director and officers hostage. All the 15 hostages were released after special forces stormed the building, and no one was injured.
"Sitnikov, Pukhteyev and Gorchakov were found guilty of an escape attempt and hostage-taking," the judge said.
Under the verdict, they will serve their terms in a high-security prison.
The defendants, who were found by psychologists to be mentally stable, said they had taken the hostages as part of their failed escape plan.
