Russian court hands down sentences in case over bombing of occupier Sushko: 5 defendants receive terms from 17 years to life imprisonment
Russia’s Southern District Military Court has handed down a verdict in the case over the bombing of Ivan Sushko, head of the occupation administration of the village of Mykhailivka, who was eliminated in a car explosion in August 2022.
This was reported by Censor.NET, citing Mediazona.
Teteriev’s sentence
As noted, Judge Igor Kostin sentenced 50-year-old Volodymyr Teteriev to life imprisonment under the article on an act of international terrorism, as well as to nine years in prison for illegal trafficking in explosives as part of an organized group.
According to the verdict, Teterev will serve the first six years of his sentence in prison and the rest of the term in a special-regime penal colony.
Other sentences
Oleksii Kyrychenko, 35, Oleksandr Liakhovchenko, 24, and Dmytro Novikov, 36, were each sentenced to 18 years in prison. Danylo Smola, 22, received 17 years in prison.
According to the verdict, all of them will serve the first four years of their sentences in prison, after which they will be transferred to a strict-regime penal colony.
The prosecutor had insisted on life imprisonment for all five defendants.
Novikov’s verdict was announced in his absence, as he refused to leave his pre-trial detention center cell.
All five defendants told the court they had been abducted and tortured. At the same time, on March 9, Russia’s Investigative Committee refused to open a criminal case based on their statements.
During closing arguments, Teteriev described in detail what happened after his abduction. According to him, on August 23, 2023, exactly one year after Sushko’s car was blown up, he was detained by unidentified men in balaclavas. Under pressure and torture, he was forced to confess to the killing of the official. He also claims that after threats to "torture to death" his elderly mother, he agreed to "make up" testimony. He was officially detained only in late November.
Read more about the situation in the Censor.NET article: "Do you know how we differ from the Gestapo? Only in name." Ukrainian Volodymyr Teteriev recounted how the FSB fabricated a case under which he faces life imprisonment
Background
As reported, Ivan Sushko, head of the Russian occupation administration in a village in the Zaporizhzhia region, was blown up in a car.
