Today, on August 4, the “judge” of the “Razdolnensky District Court” Maria Bedritskaya sentenced Ukrainian activist Vladimir Balukh to 3 years and 7 months in prison in a colony and a fine of 10 thousand rubles. Balukh was accused of illegally storing ammunition and explosives that were allegedly found in the attic of his house. Balukh did not admit his guilt. The defence of the Ukrainian citizen stated that the case against the Ukrainian was fabricated and his verdict would be appealed in higher instances.
“Judge”, reading the verdict, announced that all evidence collected by the investigation were legal. “The arguments about the illegality of the prosecution and the arguments of the defence about a possible planting of a fake evidence “the court” consider insolvent. “The court” didn’t find the circumstances that would mitigate the responsibility”- said Bedritskaya.
Speaking with the last word on August 1 at a session of the “court”, Vladimir Balukh stated that the criminal case against him is a political order and gave the details about the reasons for the falsification of the criminal case against him.
During the one of the last session of the “court”, on July 27, Balukh got high pressure, and the Ambulance was called. The defence of the Ukrainian citizen stated then that all the documents submitted by the prosecution were drawn up with procedural irregularities. In addition, the documents of the investigation has different data regarding the number of cartridges and the weight of TNT, which were allegedly found in the attic of Balukh house.
Recall that the FSS detained Crimean in the morning on December 8, last year. Employees of the FSS said that in the attic of the house where the activist lives, 90 cartridges and several TNT checkers were found. With respect to the activist, a criminal case was opened under Article 222 part 1; (Illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation or carrying of weapons, its main parts, ammunition), Article 222.1 part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation or carrying explosives or explosive devices).
Rough violations of fundamental human rights and procedural norms of de facto Russian legislation in Crimea, as well as unreasonable decisions to extend the term of detention, say of fabricating a criminal case against Ukrainian activist Vladimir Balukh for political reasons.
