Translated material
Pearl Ensign received 3 years probation for shooting in a cafe
Former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vadim Boyko, known as the Pearl Ensign, was sentenced by the district court of St. Petersburg to 3 years of probation for hooliganism. In May 2013, he shot at a cafe with a hunting rifle. The defendant's lawyer, Anna Murray, promised to appeal the verdict.
The lawyer noted that the prosecutor asked to appoint Boyko a sentence of four years in prison.
- Vadim Boyko was detained on May 11, 2013 in one of the St. Petersburg cafes. The day before, he had rested in this institution, and the next morning he discovered the loss of watches and other personal belongings. Having entered the premises, Boyko fired a shot at the ceiling, after which he pointed the weapon at the employees and demanded that his things be returned. At the moment of detention, the former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was drunk.
- Boyko received the nickname Pearl Ensign thanks to a video recording of the dispersal of an opposition rally in St. Petersburg on July 31, 2010. The recording shows how Boyko calls the oppositionists ferrets and beats one of the protesters with a truncheon. On Boyko's hand, they noticed a bracelet that looked like a pearl.
- In December 2011, the court sentenced Boyko to 3.5 years of probation for abuse of power.