A court in Rostov-on-Don has handed down sentences to those involved in the case of the explosion on the Crimean Bridge in October 2022. As requested by the prosecution, all of them were sentenced to life imprisonment. However, none of the defendants agreed to plead guilty, according to Mediazona.
A total of eight people were on trial: Roman Solomko, Vladimir Zlob, Georgy Azatyan, Artem Azatyan, Alexander Bylin, Oleg Antipov, Artur Terchanyan and Dmitry Tyazhelikh.
They were charged with committing a terrorist act (clause ‘b’ of part 3 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and illegal trafficking of weapons or explosives (part 4 of Article 222.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In addition, Solomko and Terchanyan were charged with smuggling explosive devices (part 3 of Article 226.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
The explosion on the Crimean Bridge occurred early in the morning on 8 October 2022. A truck filled with explosives hidden in plastic film packages exploded on the road section of the bridge.
As a result, three spans of the bridge collapsed, killing five people, including the driver of the exploded truck, Makhir Yusubov.
Over the next few days, Russian security forces detained eight people who had any connection to the cargo: two entrepreneurs from the Kherson region (Solomko and Zlob), two brothers who owned a warehouse in the city of Armavir (Artem and Georgy Azatyan), a long-distance truck driver (Terchanyan), a fruit and vegetable supplier from annexed Crimea (Bilin), a logistics specialist from St. Petersburg (Antipov), and a resident of Lipetsk who rented out SIM cards (Tyazhelov).
According to the investigation, all of them were members of an organised group created by the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Malyuk, for the purpose of committing a terrorist act.
Despite the fact that none of the defendants pleaded guilty, the prosecution believed that they could not have been unaware that explosives were hidden in the truck that exploded on the Crimean Bridge.