19:57, 5 April 2024

Pyatigorsk environmental activist Legkobitov sentenced to 7.5 years in colony

The Pyatigorsk City Court. Photo: l5gorsk https://wikimapia.org

A court in Pyatigorsk has sentenced Sergey Legkobitov, an environmental activist, to 7.5 years in penal colony, finding him guilty of mediation in bribery.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 19, 2024, the state prosecutor demanded to sentence Sergey Legkobitov to 10 years of freedom deprivation and a fine of 30 million roubles. In his last word, he declared his innocence and demanded that the investigation be resumed, since the court had failed to evaluate a number of materials important for the outcome of his case.

Sergey has stated that the investigators' version of his mediation in the bribe transfer was supported by dubious evidence, while testimonies of other participants in the staged crime contradicted the version.

According to investigators, Legkobitov had planned to give an FSB officer a bribe from Denis Topsakhalov, an entrepreneur, so that he would avoid a fine for unauthorized garbage dumping in a specially protected natural area. Georgy Legkobitov, Sergey's father, has stated that the criminal case had been fabricated in order to force him, Georgy Legkobitov, to abandon his human rights activities. He has treated his son's detention as a method of pressure due to his activities to protect against the development of Mount Mashuk.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 5, 2024 at 12:41 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: СK correspondent