Cuban volleyball players sentenced for rape in Finland

The Pirkanmaa District Court of Finland on Tuesday convicted five Cuban volleyball players of aggravated rape and sentenced them to imprisonment, local media reported.

Four of the defendants were sentenced to five years and one of them to three years and six months of imprisonment for aggravated rape over an attack on a Finnish woman in the city of Tampere in July, said Finnish national broadcaster Yle.

Originally, six Cuban volleyball players were prosecuted in the criminal case at the end of July. One of them has been acquitted completely by the court.

All the defendants were members of the Cuban men's national volleyball team.

At the beginning of July, the team participated in the games of the World Volleyball League in Finland. The rape took place in a hotel in Tampere, southern Finland, where the Olympics-bound Cuban team stayed.

Because of the scandal, the six volleyball players and two coaches were fired in mid-July. Without them, the Cuban men's national volleyball team lost all five games in the Rio Olympics. Endit