Filmmaker Sentsov refuses to plead guilty of plotting terror acts in Crimea

At the court session in Rostov-on-Don, the Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, accused of creating a terrorist community and plotting terror acts in the Crimea, has declared his innocence and political motivation of the case against him.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 30, 2014, in the Crimea, a group of four persons, Sentsov and an activist Alexander Kolchenko among them, was detained. Law enforcers believe that all of them are members of the "Right-Wing Sector", an organization, which is banned in Russia.

According to investigators, "Sentsov and other members of the terrorist community prepared to blow up their self-made bombs at night on May 9, 2014, at the memorial "Eternal Flame" and monument to Lenin in Simferopol, and on April 14 and 18, 2014, to set on fire the office of the public organization "Russian Community of Crimea" and the representative office of the party "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) in Simferopol with the aim to intimidate the local population," the "Interfax" reports.

"I refuse to plead guilty and treat the case as political and fabricated," Oleg Sentsov said after the announcement of the charges.

In the course of the court session, Sentsov and Kolchenko also petitioned about a permission to be visited by officials of the Consulate of Ukraine and their relatives. The state prosecutor supported the petition on meetings with relatives, but was against the visit of the Consul of Ukraine, stating that under the Russian legislation the defendants cannot meet foreigners, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

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