PERM. May 7 (Interfax) - The Russian Supreme Court's judicial board for criminal cases on Tuesday dismissed an appeal filed by Timur Bekmansurov, who was convicted for a shooting incident at Perm State University, the Russian Supreme Court's press service told Interfax.
"Bekmansurov's appeal is declined, and his sentence is upheld," the court said.
Six people were killed and 47 were injured in a shooting incident at a building of Perm State University in the morning of September 20, 2021. The gunfire damaged vehicles and property of the university. During the investigation, Bekmansurov pleaded guilty but did not explain his conduct and refused to testify. He is not registered as a drug addict or a mentally ill patient, but is listed as disabled due to a partial leg amputation.
On December 28, 2022, the Perm Territory Court sentenced Bekmansurov to life imprisonment to be served in a maximum security penal colony. Under the court's ruling, Bekmansurov will serve the first three years of his sentence in prison, and then he will be moved to a maximum security penal colony. The court found the defendant guilty of murder, attempted murder, and deliberate destruction or damage to property, as well as an attempt on the life of a law enforcement officer.
When sentencing him, the court took into account mitigating circumstances: active assistance in the investigation of the crimes, confession of guilt, chronic diseases and disability. The court listed the use of weapons and ammunition among the aggravating circumstances. The court also granted the civil claims of the aggrieved parties for a total of 25.2 million rubles.
The prosecutor, the convict and his lawyer later appealed the sentence handed down by the first-instance court. In the summer of 2023, Nizhny Novgorod's Fourth Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction upheld Bekmansurov's sentence of life imprisonment. At the same time, the sentence itself was changed in part, which was stated by the prosecutor's office in its appeal. In particular, the findings of a trace examination, the testimony of a witness, and one of the protocols of the search conducted at the scene of the incident were dropped from the evidence. Aggravating circumstances for one of the charges were dropped and the penalty for a number of other charges was also commuted.