MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/: A military court of Moscow ruled on Friday to sentence in absentia former Defense Minister of Ukraine Anatoly Gritsenko to a six-year prison term after he was found guilty of calling for terrorist attacks on the territory of Russia.
"The court took into account arguments of both sides, found Gritsenko guilty of violating Article 205.2 Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and ruled to sentence him in absentia to a 6-year term in a standard regime penal colony," Judge Daniil Logachev said as he announced the verdict.
Article 205.2 Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation stipulates a punishment for Public calls for the commission of terrorist activity or public justification of terrorism committed through the use of the mass media.
The Main Department of the Russian Investigative Committee was in charge of the investigation into the Gritsenko case. The ex-defense minister of Ukraine was put on the international wanted list and arrested in absentia in 2019.
Gritsenko is currently staying on the territory of Ukraine, which cannot turn him over to Russia in line with the international legal norms and the Ukrainian national legislation.
The criminal case against the ex-defense minister was initiated after Gritsenko’s public statements, which he made using mass media, in July 16, 2014 and July 2, 2017.
Speaking in 2014 during a live broadcast of the Ukrainian television and radio station ‘Studio 1+1,’ Gritsenko made a public statement calling for terrorist activities on the territory of Russia by blowing up railway trains.
In July 2017, as he spoke live on air of the Ukrainian television channel ‘112 Ukraine,’ Gritsenko proposed blowing up cars in the Russian capital of Moscow and in the country’s southern city of Taganrog, in response to alleged activities of the Russian intelligence services aimed at the elimination of Ukrainian military hardware and military servicemen.
