MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2021) A Moscow court on Monday handed a six-year prison sentence to Azat Miftakhov, a postgraduate student of the Moscow State University, over an 2018 arson attack on the ruling United Russia party's office, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the courtroom.
"To find Miftakhov guilty of hooliganism ... committed with the help of items used as weapons by a group of persons acting on the basis of prior agreement. To impose a sentence of six years in prison," Judge Sergei Bazarov said, reading out the ruling.
Miftakhov will serve his sentence at a general regime penal colony. Two other defendants, Elena Gorban and Andrey Eikin, received four and two years of suspended sentences, respectively.
According to the court, in January 2018, the young people smashed a window of the United Russia party's office in the north of Moscow and threw a smoke bomb inside.
The postgraduate student was detained in February 2019 on suspicion of manufacturing explosives. Finally, he was charged with hooliganism committed by a group of persons by prior agreement. The two other defendants were indicted on the same charges.
Miftakhov alleges that he is being persecuted for his political views. He admits that he was a member of an anarchist movement for some five years before his arrest and was involved in opposition activities, but denies hooliganism charges.
His legal team has 10 days to appeal the verdict before it takes effect.
