A Russian court sentenced a resident of Ukraine's occupied Crimean Peninsula on July 3 to 16 years in prison after being charged with preparing a detonation. The defendant will spend the first three years of the sentence in prison before being sent to a high-security penal colony, the court announced. He will also have to pay a 500,000 ruble ($5,600) fine. The court alleged that the defendant established contact with Ukrainian intelligence and later assumed “obligations regarding the transfer, storage of weapons, and means of committing a terrorist attack -- undermining railway lines.” Ukraine has yet to comment on the sentence, and the name of the defendant was not provided. To read the original story on RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, click here.
Russia Sentences Crimean Resident To 16 Years For Preparing To Blow Up Railway
Russia's Southern Military District Court alleged that the unnamed defendant had been working with Ukrainian intelligence. (file photo)