MOSCOW. Jan 12 (Interfax) - The Moscow City Court has reduced the sentences earlier handed down to people prosecuted in the so-called New Greatness case and earlier convicted of setting up an extremist community, an Interfax correspondent reported from courtroom.
"To overturn the sentence issued by the Lyublinksy Court of Moscow on August 6, 2020 and to sentence [Vyacheslav] Kostylenkov to six years and nine months and [Pyotr] Karamzin to six years and three months [...]," the judge said when reading out the sentence on Tuesday.
Hence, the Moscow City Court has reduced the sentences of Kostylenkov and Karamzin by three months each.
The court has also reduced the suspended sentence earlier handed down to Maxim Roshchin, from six years and six months to six years.
The court has left the sentences of other defendants in the New Greatness case unchanged.
Defendants are planning to seek an acquittal judgment in cassation proceedings and at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
"We'll appeal it in cassation and will seek acquittal. We're also planning to appeal with the ECHR," defense attorney Leonid Solovyov told Interfax.
As reported earlier, Moscow's Lyublinsky Court convicted seven defendants in the New Greatness case on August 6, 2020, sentencing them to various jail terms, from seven years in a penal colony to four years in a suspended sentence. The court found all the seven defendants guilty of setting up an extremist group.
The first instance judgment was appealed by the defense and by state prosecutors. According to the prosecutor's motion, the state prosecutor pointed at a technical error in the judgment "in relation to several people convicted in the case." The error was about "the unit of measure used in sentencing," the prosecutors said.
According to the investigators, the convicted activists wanted to bring down the constitutional system and set up an interim government in this country. The defense argued that the indictment was based on the testimony given by employees of security agencies, who were operating undercover with the group as part of their field work.
During oral argument, the state prosecutor asked the court to order various penalties for defendants, from four years in a suspended sentence to seven years and six months in a standard security penitentiary. The defense team was asking for an acquittal judgment.
In parallel with the main criminal case, the Lyublinsky Court is considering the case of Pavel Rebrovsky, who earlier pleaded guilty and made a plea deal but later rejected it. He was sentenced to six years in a standard security penitentiary in October 2020.
Rustam Rustamov, another New Greatness defendant who has pleaded guilty, was earlier given two years in jail in a suspended sentence.
Sergei Gavrilov, also a defendant in the main case, has escaped trial, running away from house arrest in October 2019 and prompting the court to issue an arrest warrant and ruling in absentia to switch the measure of restraint to custody for him. According to media reports, Gavrilov is now staying in Ukraine.