Vinnytsia Court Sentences 17-Year-Old to 5 Years for Arson Sabotage

The Vinnytsia City Court found a 17-year-old native of the village of Shabo, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district, Odesa region, guilty of sabotage and sentenced him to five years in prison without confiscation of property.

This was reported by Vinnytsia.info with reference to the court verdict.

On July 6, 2024, in the city of Vinnytsia, a minor boy set fire to an administrative building using a Molotov cocktail that he had made himself.

In court, the accused said that he received the task to set fire to the TCC from a person whose materials were separated into a separate proceeding, with whom he communicated via the Telegram messenger. For this, he was promised 80 thousand hryvnias. The arson video was to be sent to the customers.

Arriving in Vinnytsia, the guy bought one by one the components for the incendiary mixture, namely flammable liquid (gasoline) at a gas station, found empty glass bottles in a trash bin opposite the local one, tore a piece of fabric to use as an improvised wick from his own T-shirt, which he was wearing, and joined them into one piece before committing the crime to further implement his illegal actions.

The arsonist was recorded by video surveillance cameras on neighboring buildings. The same day he was detained in a hotel in the city. During the trial, the accused pleaded guilty and explained that he had agreed to the crime due to difficult life circumstances. The boy's mother said that she was raising her son alone, and the family had a difficult financial situation. The family was registered as being in difficult life circumstances.

For committing sabotage under martial law, the teenager faced up to 15 years in prison or life imprisonment, but the court took into account the age of the accused and his sincere remorse.

Кирило Бойко