Fifteen Partizan FC fans who were involved in the murder of French citizen Brice Taton in Belgrade 2009 were sentenced to a total of 240 years in prison by the Belgrade District Court on Tuesday.

The four principal defendants received sentences of 30-35 years. Two of them were tried in absentia since they are still at large.

Djordje Prelic and Dejan Puzigaca were sentenced in absentia to 35 and 32 years respectively for organizing the attack on Taton. They are still at large and international arrest warrants have been issued for them.

Football fan group leaders Ivan Grkovich (27) and Ljubomir Markovich (29) were sentenced to 30 years each for first degree murder.

Vladan Suvajac, Jovan Karbic, Milan Vujovich and Branimir Cetnik were sentenced to 14 years on the same count.

Dragan Tomasovic, Stefan Velickovic, Milan Tarlac and Bojan Matijevic were sentenced to 12 years on the same count.

Stepa Petrovic i Dejan Stankovic were sentenced to five and four years respectively for violent behavior.

Vladimir Boskovic received an eight month sentence suspended for two years for aiding the indictees.

The convicted and their defense lawyers can file appeals to the Court of Appeals in Belgrade within 15 from receiving a written verdict.

The defendants are guilty because on September 17, 2009, in a planned and organized attack against French citizens, fans of Toulouse football club, they took Brice Taton's life, judge Mirjana Ilic said explaining the verdict.

Taton was attacked by the Partizan hooligans in a bar and beaten with wooden bats before being thrown down a flight of stairs ahead of Toulouse's 3-2 Europa League victory over Partizan.

He died in a Belgrade hospital 12 days later.

All of the defendants were aware that those acts constituted ruthless violent behaviour, judge Ilic ruled.

Strict security measures were applied in the court.

Among those present in the courtroom were three family members of each of the defendants, about a dozen Serbian and French reporters, Taton's parents and French Ambassador to Belgrade Francois Xavier Deniau with embassy officials.