SIMFEROPOL. May 17 (Interfax) - A military court of appeals in the Moscow region on Monday upheld a lower court's decision in the case involving blacksmith Oleg Prikhodko, who was found guilty of preparing to blow up an administrative building in Crimea and setting fire to the Russian consulate general in Lviv and was sentenced to five years in a high-security penal colony, including a year in prison, and a fine of 110,000 rubles.
"The court upheld the decision, thus declining the appeals filed by the defense lawyers and the appeal filed by the state prosecutors," Nazim Sheikhmambetov, a lawyer for the Crimean, told Interfax.
The hearing was held online: Prikhodko was in a detention facility in Rostov-on-Don, his lawyers were in the Crimean and Sevastopol garrison military courts, and the judge and the prosecutor were in Vlasikha, Moscow region.
The sentence took legal force after the court of appeals gave its decision.
The defense lawyers are preparing to file documents with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
"We have used all effective means of defense in the national judicial system to go to the ECHR, there are no more obstacles to going to the European court. Work is being done on an appeal, I think we'll file it in the near future," the lawyer said.
Their client has not made any requests to continue the litigation according to Russian legislation.
"As to cassation. Oleg Arkadyevich [Prikhodko] is currently thinking about it. There are currently no requests from him for that," Sheikhmambetov said.
The Public Relations Center of the Russian Federal Security Service said earlier that the special service's officials had found on October 9, 2019 an improvised explosive device, components, and tools for manufacturing one, as well as bottles containing a flammable liquid in a garage belonging to Prikhodko, a blacksmith, in the village of Orekhovo, the Saki district of Crimea. They detained the man. Prikhodko claimed that the improvised explosive device had been planted in his garage.
Prikhodko was later charged with preparing a bomb attack at an administrative building in Saki, a small city in the western part of the Crimean Peninsula.
Prikhodko was initially indicted on two counts, i.e., "illicit production of explosives" and "attempt at perpetrating a terror attack." Another count, "illicit acquisition and possession of explosives," was added in December 2019. In February 2020, he was charged with another offense, preparations to set fire to the Russian consulate general in Lviv, Ukraine, in summer 2019.
Prikhodko considers himself only a Ukrainian citizen and insists that a Russian passport was given to him against his will in 2016. He also said he does not belong to any extremist or terrorist groups.
Prikhodko, who made his last statement in February 2021, did not admit guilt. His defense lawyers said that the evidence provided by the state prosecutor was "dubious" and the case was "absolutely baseless from a legal standpoint."
The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don in March 2021 sentenced Prikhodko to a lesser term than the prosecutor had sought in December 2020: he had sought 11 years behind bars for the defendant, including three years in prison, and a 200,000 rubles fine.
The defense lawyers and the state prosecutors appealed the decision made by the first-instance court. The lawyers demanded his acquittal, while the prosecutor demanded that the punishment be increased to 11 years in a penal colony, including three years in prison, and a fine in the amount of 110,000 rubles.