SIMFEROPOL. Feb 17 (Interfax) - The Simferopol District Court in Crimea on Wednesday sentenced Vladislav Yesypenko, a freelance contributor to Krym.Realii (a Radio Liberty project, designated a foreign-agent media, alongside the parent company), to six years behind bars, convicting him of illicitly remaking and possessing a grenade, the court's press officer told Interfax.
"The court handed out a sentence of six-year incarceration, which the man will serve in a standard security penal colony. He also must pay a fine of 110,000 rubles. The sentence has not yet become effective and may be appealed," a court spokesperson said.
As reported earlier, the public prosecutor asked the court to sentence Yesypenko to 11 years in prison and fine him. The defense insisted on the defendant's innocence.
In his closing statement, Yesypenko described his case as political.
The defense will appeal the judgement. "We will appeal it," Dmitry Dinze, one of Yesypenko's lawyers, told Interfax.
The journalist was charged under two articles of the Russian Criminal Code: Parts 1 of Articles 222.1 and 223.1 (illicit acquisition, handover, sale, storage and transportation, or bearing explosives or explosive devices; illicit production of explosive substances, and illicit production, remaking or repairing explosive devices).
FSB officers detained Yesypenko in Crimea in March 2021. Simferopol's Kievsky District court sanctioned his arrest. Yesypenko is being held in a Simferopol detention facility.
According to FSB, the man took photos of public places and critical infrastructure facilities in Crimea.
"According to the detainee, he collected said information in the interests of Ukrainian special services on the orders of a Col. Kravchuk, a reserve officer of unit 8 of the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service's department 5, and he kept the improvised explosive device, as recommended by Kravchuk, in his car for his personal security," FSB said. Ukrainian security agencies considered the FSB statement a provocation. Yesypenko said the grenade was planted on him during a search.
Yesypenko first provided self-incriminating evidence but later denied them, saying that he had made the statements as a result of torture. The FSB regional office in Crimea did not comment on his complaints.
Radio Liberty Jeremy Fly said after Yesypenko was detained that the latter was a freelance journalist of the radio's Ukraine bureau (the Krym. Realii project) and demanded that he be released.
Yesypenko is a citizen of Ukraine and Russia. He visited Crimea from time to time.
Krym.Realii and other projects of Radio Liberty are included in Russia in the register of foreign mass media performing the functions of a foreign agent.
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