Russian used landmines to protect garden

Alexander Skopintsev built three explosive traps in his garage last July and planted them around his garden.

MOSCOW, February 12, 2010 (AFP) - A Russian man who was so fiercely protective of his garden that he planted landmines to defend it from intruders has been convicted on weapons charges, prosecutors said on Friday.

Alexander Skopintsev, a resident of the far eastern Primorye region near Russia's border with China, built three explosive traps in his garage last July and planted them around his garden, Primorye region prosecutors said.

"During the court hearings, Skopintsev testified that he had prepared the explosive devices to protect his garden against thieves," the region's prosecutors said in a statement.

Police caught the bomb-building gardener after a trespasser set off one of the landmines in August and was injured in the blast, a spokeswoman for the region's prosecutors, Irina Nomokonova, told RIA-Novosti news agency.

A court in the town of Ussuriisk convicted Skopintsev of the unlawful construction and storage of weapons and gave him a two-and-a-half year suspended sentence.