体坛英语新闻：Slovak hockey player sentenced six years for murder of referee

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Former Slovak premier league ice-hockey player Ladislav Scurko had been sentenced to six years in prison for the murder of referee Marek Liptaj in January 2008, Kosice District 1 court announced on Thursday.

Scurko committed the murder in a "state of mild insanity", said psychiatric experts, and this served as a mitigating circumstance before the court.

"I don't agree with the decision of the district court," said Scurko who kept insisting his innocent.

Liptaj was murdered in the lay-by of a motorway with at least 19 times stabs in the chest and stomach, dying immediately. His remains were discovered 11 months later. Scurko at first confessed to the crime, but later changed his testimony and began claiming that it was in fact two unknown men he saw at the lay-by who murdered the referee.

Scurko was released by the Kosice court in 2011 after providing a written pledge that he wouldn't escape, interfere with the proceedings and would remain under the supervision of a probation official. He has against the new ruling.