Human rights activists recognize those accused of blowing up the Crimean bridge as political prisoners

The eight defendants in the case of the explosion of the Crimean Bridge, who are currently being held in Rostov pretrial detention centers, had no connection with the Ukrainian special services and were not aware of the explosives in the cargo being transported, and after the incident they cooperated with the FSB.

As "Caucasian Knot" wrote, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don has been considering the case of the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge, which took place in October 2022, in closed session since February. The following are involved in the case: Artem Azatyan, Georgy Azatyan, Oleg Antipov, Alexander Bylin, Vladimir Zlob, Dmitry Tyazhelykh, Roman Solomko and Artur Terchanyan. They are charged with a terrorist act and illegal trafficking of weapons or explosives, and Solomko and Terchanyan are also charged with smuggling explosive devices.

Human rights activists have recognized all eight defendants in the case of the explosion of the Crimean Bridge, whose case is currently being heard in the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don, as political prisoners: Artem Azatyan, Georgy Azatyan, Oleg Antipov, Alexander Bylin, Vladimir Zlob, Roman Solomko, Artur Terchanyan, and Dmitry Tyazhelykh. According to human rights activists, all of them are random people whom the investigation “was able to reach,” while the real organizers and executors are inaccessible to the Russian authorities.

Antipov, Tyazhelykh, and Artem Azatyan are currently in Rostov Pretrial Detention Center No. 5, while the other five defendants are in Pretrial Detention Center No. 1. The case of the blowing up of the Crimean Bridge is political in nature and is based on the assumptions of the investigation - the prosecution did not present convincing evidence that the defendants collaborated with the Ukrainian special services, had the intent to blow up the bridge and knew about the preparation of the explosion, the project "Support for political prisoners. Memorial" reported on August 7*.

The investigation believes that entrepreneurs Oleg Antipov, Alexander Bylin, Vladimir Zlob (a citizen of Ukraine) and Georgy Azatyan, lawyer Artem Azatyan, farmer Roman Solomko (a citizen of Ukraine and Moldova) and driver Artur Terchanyan (a citizen of Armenia) organized the delivery of explosives hidden in a batch of polyethylene film to the Crimean Bridge - they successively passed it to each other, stored, accompanied and transported the cargo. The eighth defendant, Dmitry Tyazhelykh, is not acquainted with any of the other defendants in the case - he, according to the prosecution, provided communications services to the alleged organizer of the terrorist attack, whose identity has not been established.

None of the defendants pleaded guilty either during the investigation or in court. They claim that they did not know about the explosives hidden in the cargo and were doing their usual work. After the explosion, they voluntarily turned themselves in to the FSB and told what they knew. The head of Ukrainian intelligence Vasily Malyuk, whom the investigation calls the organizer of the terrorist group, also told journalists that the participants in the delivery of the cargo to the bridge were used “in the dark.”

"Caucasian Knot" also wrote that in October 2024, the investigation declared an interstate search for Georgian citizen Alexander Inasaridze and Ukrainian citizen Sergey Andreychenko, accused of organizing the transportation of an explosive device to Russia that was detonated on the Crimean Bridge in October 2022.

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