Defenders of sentenced Rostov journalist Alexander Tolmachov disagree with Court's verdict

Defenders of Alexander Tolmachov, a Rostov journalist and publisher, who has been sentenced to nine years of imprisonment for extortion, intend to challenge the verdict announced by the Kuschevskaya District Court of the Krasnodar Territory. According to the public defender of the journalist, the Court has ignored the defence arguments in the case.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in December 2011, Alexander Tolmachov was taken in custody and charged with extortion. On October 29, 2014, the journalist was sentenced to nine years in a high-security penal colony.

"The judge has sentenced Alexander Tolmachov to the maximum punishment requested by the prosecutor: nine years in a high-security penal colony. To date, he has already served about three years at SIZOs (pre-trial prisons)," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Maria Polyanichko, an activist of the NGO "People's Legal Control".

She has added that all the people in the courtroom were "shocked by the verdict."

"The advocates will by all means appeal against such a tough sentence. Let's hope for the court of appeal. The verdict is clearly groundless. And at the trial, the prosecutor presented no evidence against Alexander Tolmachov," Maria Polyanichko has stated.

Public defender Alexandra Izucheeva has confirmed that the  defence of Alexander Tolmachev intends to appeal against the sentence.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.