Translated by Ollie Richardson
21:10:43
23/05/2017
politnavigator.net
In Ukraine political repressions against Anti-maidan activists continue. On May 23rd, 2017, the Kievsky district court of Kharkov pronounced the verdict to one of the leaders of the Kharkov Resistance of spring, 2014, Yury Apukhtin. The activist will spend six years behind bars.
This was reported by the local NewsRoom publication.
Apukhtin is accused of inciting a pogrom against a bus with Ukrainian police officers on April 8th, 2014, and also of calls “to fight against this power”. The court found him guilty of mass riots and calls to violently overthrow the government in Ukraine.
The court did not confiscate Apukhtin’s property, however they obliged him to pay about 10,000 hryvnias in legal costs.
The accused insisted that his actions didn’t carry malicious intent, and on April 8th he arrived to the city center together with his wife to visit a pharmacy.
The publication writes that Apukhtin stated after the announcement of his sentence: “I didn’t expect another verdict”. Also, according to him, his views, despite being prosecuted, haven’t changed.
The leader of the public pro-Russian association “Great Rus” Yury Apukhtin was detained on May 1st, 2014, by the SBU on the suspicion of organizing mass riots. In the SBU’s message it was said that Apukhtin allegedly took part in the preparation of an act of terrorism on Victory Day. Apukhtin spent some years in torture chambers awaiting trial.
During a search in an office of the organisation, the SBU declared the confiscation of an F-1 grenade, a “Zoraki” gun adapted to fire service cartridges, cash, Russian symbols, and postcards of a “separatist nature”.
On May 8th, Apukhtin posted bail at 92,000 hryvnias and left the pre-trial detention center. In December the court cancelled Apukhtin’s bail and again took him into custody.
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