Penza, 13 March 2015. PenzaNews. A Penza man, 27, who immolated his own girlfriend alive, was sentenced to 5.5 years in a maximum-security penal colony.

The court also ordered him to pay 500,000 rubles in moral damages to the offended party.

“The investigators and the court found that the man doused his girlfriend, 27, with a highly flammable liquid of petrol and car oil during a quarrel, and then ignited her with a lighter. The crime took place at a dacha in Arbekovo village early on July 6, 2014,” Lyudmila Fomina, Senior Assistant of the Head of the Investigative Department of the city Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, told PenzaNews agency.

The woman received third- and fourth-degree burns of over 97% of her body, and succumbed to the received wounds after several days in intensive care, she added.

“The man also received numerous burns and was hospitalized,” added the speaker.