Russian Court Sentences Yalta Resident to 24 Years for Attempted Assassination of Oleg Tsarev

The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, has sentenced a resident of Yalta to 24 years in prison for allegedly attempting to assassinate former Ukrainian MP Oleh Tsarev, who lives in Crimea.

According to Krym.Realii, Russian security forces claim that the convicted person, on the instructions of the SBU, followed Tsarev and arranged a cache with weapons, which were later used during the attempt. During the search, an improvised explosive device was allegedly found in the Yalta resident's house. The occupation court found the man guilty under articles on high treason, terrorism, attempted murder of a public figure and illegal trafficking in explosives.

On October 27, 2023, a former Ukrainian journalist, an employee of the Russian edition, Alexander Chalenko, reported that Tsarev was found in his home with stab wounds. In turn, a representative of the Russian occupation administration of Zaporizhzhia region, Vladimir Rogov, said that Oleg Tsarev had been shot.

Earlier, the Russian prosecutor's office announced that a case against three people detained in Crimea who allegedly planned an assassination attempt on the Russian head of the peninsula, Sergei Aksyonov, had been brought to court. In total, since 2017, human rights activists have recorded more than 10,000 violations of fundamental human rights in the Russian-annexed Crimea, including 6,730 against members of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people. This practice extends to the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, where Russian forces are also trying to intimidate people.

According to the Presidential Mission in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as of November 4, the occupiers illegally imprisoned 218 people on the peninsula, 132 of whom are Crimean Tatars. Of the total number, 43 are arrested (28 of them are Crimean Tatars), 151 are imprisoned (97 of them are Crimean Tatars), and 26 are without status (6 of them are Crimean Tatars).

Олеся Ланцман