In Crimea, a citizen of Ukraine was convicted for participation in an illegal armed formation

CrimeaPRESS reports:

A 26-year-old citizen of Ukraine was found guilty of participating in an illegal armed group not provided for by federal law.

While on the territory of Ukraine in November 2015, acting deliberately, on the grounds of political hostility towards the Russian Federation and the fact that the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol became part of it, he voluntarily arrived at the camp of the armed formations «Crimean Tatar Volunteer Battalion named after Noman Chelebidzhikhan» (the organization was recognized as a terrorist organization by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, its activities are prohibited on the territory of Russia), — noted in the press service of the court. — The purpose of this illegal armed formation was the blockade of the Crimean peninsula from the side of the Ukrainian border, as well as the forcible change of the foundations of the constitutional order and the violation of the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, including through armed struggle aimed at tearing away the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol from the Russian Federation.

As the defendant explained at the court session, he took part in the protection of the permanent deployment point of the «battalion» as part of an armed guard, carried out household work, was engaged in arranging the location of the «battalion» in engineering terms (arranging trenches, erecting defensive barriers), went to the block posts for protection, as well as inspection of persons and vehicles that went to the Crimea.

The court, having comprehensively studied the case materials, taking into account extenuating circumstances, found the man guilty under Part 2 of Article 208 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and sentenced him to 5 years in prison with the first year in prison and the remaining term in a strict regime correctional colony.

The verdict has not entered into force.