Witness in Sentsov's case reveals his idea to blow up monument to Lenin
On August 3, at the session of the court, which considers, in Rostov-on-Don, the case of the Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, accused of preparing a terror act in the Crimea, six witnesses were questioned, including three "secret" ones. One of the latter – a woman – said that Sentsov had expressed the idea to blow up the monument to Lenin.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 30, 2014, in the Crimea, a group of four persons, Sentsov and 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.
Oleg Sentsov is accused of creating a Crimean branch of the "Right-Wing Sector", which committed "arsons of the office of the public organization 'Russian Community of the Crimea' "and the representative office of the 'Edinaya Rossiya' (United Russia) Party in Simferopol on April 14 and 18, 2014." Alexander Kolchenko is charged with involvement in a terrorist community and commission of a terror act. Both defendants state political motives of their case.
The witness, who figures under the pseudonym of Alexandra Smirnitskaya told the court that she knows Sentsov and attended political meetings with his participation. According to her story, Sentsov treated the accession of the Crimea to Russia as a mistake, and, as she noted, expressed the idea to blow up the monument to Lenin.
Smirnitskaya has specified that Oleg Sentsov had stuck, together with the earlier convicted Alexei Afanasiev and Gennady Chirnij, to pro-Ukrainian views; however, she knows nothing about their relationships with the "Right-Wing Sector".
The advocate Sidorkina asked Smirnitskaya why her testimony had been made secret. She replied that she still lived in the same city and "was afraid to meet defendants' friends." Then, Sidorkina petitioned about removing secrecy from the witness; but prosecutor asked the court to dismiss the petition; and it was dismissed.
Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.