Sofia - Former ice-skating world champion Maxim Staviiski is to spend 2.5 years in prison after an appeals court Monday overturned a lighter, suspended sentence handed to him for a deadly traffic accident he caused 16 months ago.

The court in the Black Sea port of Burgas said Staviiski must serve time for driving his massive jeep into another car in August 2007, killing a 24-year old man and gravely injuring an 18-year old girl, who remains in a coma and in a hospital in Israel.

Though Staviiski was driving drunk, with an alcohol level 2.5 times above the legal limit, last January he was sentenced to serve only a suspended 30-month sentence. Outraged families of the victims accused the court of corruption and launched the appeal.

The new verdict also raised the compensation Staviiski must pay to the families of the victims, from a total of 270,000 to 390,000 leva (192,000 - 277,000 dollars).

Staviiski, a naturalized Russian, claimed world figure skating titles in 2006 and 2007 for Bulgaria with partner Albena Denkova. (dpa)