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Saint Petersburg:
A court docket in Saint Petersburg on Friday sentenced a Russian historian and Napoleon fanatic to 12-and-a-half-years in jail for murdering and dismembering his younger scholar lover final yr.
The trial, which spurred activists to voice rising anger over home abuse in Russia, started in June after delays because of the coronavirus pandemic.
On Friday, Oleg Sokolov, a historical past lecturer who acquired France’s Legion d’Honneur in 2003, got here to the courtroom in a gray go well with and a white shirt, an AFP journalist following the trial reported.
Sokolov paced forwards and backwards in a glass cell as Judge Yulia Maximenko sentenced him to “12 years and six months in a strict regime penal colony” on costs of homicide and the unlawful possession of firearms.
“He was aware of his actions at the time of the crime,” Maximenko stated as she learn out the decision, including that the intent to homicide arose “suddenly”.
Sokolov was arrested in November 2019 after he was hauled out of the freezing Moika River in Saint Petersburg whereas drunk and carrying a backpack containing a girl’s arms.
The historian pleaded responsible to the costs of murdering 24-year-old Anastasia Yeshchenko, however stated he dedicated the crime within the warmth of the second throughout an argument along with his former scholar and lover.
Sokolov’s lawyer Sergei Lukyanov stated the defence “does not agree” with the sentence however will determine whether or not to attraction after receiving a replica of the decision.
Last week the court docket heard the ultimate arguments within the case and prosecutors requested a 15-year-term.
Yeshchenko’s dad and mom attended the sentencing on Friday.
Their lawyer Alexandra Baksheyeva instructed reporters that, despite the fact that “nothing can bring their daughter back”, the household doesn’t intend to attraction the decision to request a harsher sentence.
Sokolov taught historical past at Saint Petersburg State University, President Vladimir Putin’s alma mater, and was near the authorities.
The embellished historian authored a number of books on Napoleon Bonaparte and sometimes led historic reenactments of the French emperor’s 1812 Russian marketing campaign.
The grotesque homicide scandalised Russia after a lot of his college students stated Sokolov had exhibited inappropriate behaviour previously and demanded that administration on the college be investigated.
Every yr, almost 16.5 million ladies throughout Russia fall sufferer to home violence, in response to activists.
However, efforts to foyer for a specialised regulation towards violence and defend victims have failed.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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