The Rostov court received the case of eight Crimean residents accused of treason and preparing terrorist attacks; one of them talked about torture

The case against eight residents of Crimea, who are accused under articles of treason and terrorism, was transferred to the southern district military court in Rostov-on-Don. “Mediazona” found the card on the court’s website. The “Zone of Solidarity” project to help anti-war activists also drew attention to this.

Five of the defendants were among a group of people detained on May 3 last year in Yalta, whom the FSB called “GUR agents.” These are Viktor Podvalny, Sergei Krivoshein, Igor Zorin, Sergei Voinarovsky and Denis Petranov. They are accused of treason, preparation for a terrorist attack, illegal possession and smuggling of explosives, organization of a terrorist community and participation in it.

Last week, the same court received the cases of Konstantin Evmenenko and Alexander Litvinenko , who were detained along with them, despite the fact that in the news they were talked about as one group, they will be considered separately.

According to the security forces, they were going to kill the Russian-appointed head of the annexed Crimea Sergei Aksenov, the chairman of the Crimean parliament Vladimir Konstantinov and the mayor of Yalta Yanina Pavlenko, as well as commit “terrorist attacks on the transport infrastructure of the peninsula.”

Two more defendants were Olga Kravchuk and Sergei Voinarovsky’s wife, Elena Voinarovskaya. They are accused only of possession of explosives. The “Solidarity Zone” suggested that Kravchuk is a 66-year-old resident of Yalta.

The eighth accused was 26-year-old master of sports in orienteering from Simferopol, Kirill Barannik. He is charged with treason, illegal possession and smuggling of explosives, undergoing training to carry out terrorist activities, participation in a terrorist community and committing a terrorist attack by a group of people.

“Grati” wrote that Barannik was detained on May 30 last year. The man was accused of blowing up railway tracks near the village of Pochtovoye, Bakhchisaray district on February 23, 2023. The publication reported that although Barannik admitted guilt during interrogation, FSB officers beat him and tortured him with electric shock.

“They sat me down on the table, tied my arms and legs with tape and connected electrical wires through which current flowed to my fingers, which left me with electrical marks, the presence of which should be recorded during the medical examination carried out on me in pre-trial detention center No. 2,” they quoted “ “Grate” Barannik’s statement to the military investigation department of the Investigative Committee in annexed Crimea.

After his arrest, he was twice taken from the pre-trial detention center to the FSB headquarters, where, according to him, he was tortured with electric current for several hours, demanding that he “confess to blowing up the railway near the village of Chistenkoye, Simferopol district on May 18.”

Barannik said that they connected electrical terminals to his fingers, toes, earlobes and buttocks, threatened him with rape with a stick, and punched and kicked him in the torso and head. He wrote that his rib could have been broken on the right side, and also complained of pain in the kidneys and loss of sensation in his right hand. Lawyer Alexey Ladin, who visited Barannik in the pre-trial detention center, confirmed to “Gratam” that he saw burns on his fingers, and tumors and bruises on his body.

The Avtozak LIVE project, which helps Barannik, claims that the man “was offered to enter into a deal with the investigation and testify against other “members of the terrorist community” last year,” and after refusal, the charges were tightened, replacing the article on sabotage with articles on treason and participation in the terrorist community.

A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for May 2.