"You have no freedom, so you cannot give it to me"

Three sons of a priest from Lipetsk were sent for 17 years to a colony for trying to leave for fighting for Ukraine

The 2nd Western District Military Court appointed from 17 to 17.5 years a strict regime colony to three sons of the Lipetsk priest Igor Ashcheulov-24-year-old John, 20-year-old Alexei and 19-year-old Timofei. They were accused of attempting to Gosizmen because of an attempt to join the Liberty of Russia and leave to fight in Ukraine. During the investigation, the brothers of the Asheulovs did not deny their plans - but said that they did not consider themselves guilty, and explained their actions with disagreement with the policy of the Russian authorities and the fact that it was in the legion of “most of the Russian citizens who have the desire to free it from this political regime ". The consideration of the case took two days. The brothers themselves refused to speak in court - and made the last words only after the sentence is announced. The Mediazon tells how this process was held, which the court, unlike most cases in the Stateizer, was held in the regime open for the press.

The Ascheulov brothers were detained at the end of July 2023 in a forest belt in the Kursk region on the border with Ukraine. At the trial, the lieutenant colonel of the FSB border service, who participated in the detention, said that the brothers immediately admitted the intention to join the Legion of Freedom of Russia. Later, on the phone of the eldest of the brothers, John (border guards claim that he gave him himself and voluntarily) found correspondence with the representative of the Legion, as well as screenshots and maps with the route.

According to the investigation, which was read out in court, the Asheulovs, “being opponents of the political decisions of the president”, found information about the Liberty of Russia legion on the Internet, and, contacting him, on February 5, 2023 they received instructions on the entry in a telegram. On July 1, all three brothers met in St. Petersburg. Two younger ones, Alexei and Timothy, lived there and were road workers in the company "Geometry". John came from Minsk - there he studied at the magistracy of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus and worked as a junior researcher at the Institute of Physics.

Having met, the brothers “destroyed” their mobile phones and “no later than July 19” arrived by car in Voronezh, taking with them a “tool for dismantling” border fences, read the prosecutor in court. On July 24, the Ascheulovs sat on a train in Kursk, there they reached the bus station and reached Rylsk by bus. From there, John called a taxi to the village of Romanovo, and then the brothers walked to the border. After the detention, they were arrested for ten days under an administrative article on disobedience to the legitimate demand of the soldier, and on August 3 they were charged with attempted assault on the Stateizer, an attempt to illegally cross the border and attempted to participate in the activities of a terrorist organization.

At the trial, the Asheulovs themselves refused to speak. The older brother John, who acted on behalf of all three, invited the prosecutor to read out everything that was told by them during interrogations during the investigation.

According to John, he “hosted the hostility to the Russian government” in 2018 after the brutal dispersal of Vladimir Putin protesters against a new term. Alexey Ascheulov, as follows from his testimony read in court, said that they did not discuss their plans with relatives. The investigator showed him a video shot by another younger brother of Asheulov Procopies, on which Alexei himself says: "I am ashamed that I am Russian." “I expressed my opinion. It is due to the fact that Russia began an aggressive war against Ukraine, ”Alexey answered.

The youngest of the Asheulov brothers Timothy, during interrogation, said that due to the actions of the authorities, Russia "is in a deep socio-economic crisis" and called himself "an opponent of political decisions of the President of the Russian Federation, including in a matter of his own ." Having learned about the legion, according to Timofei, the brothers decided that it was there that “most of the Russian citizens who do not agree with its politics have a desire to free it from this political regime.”

All three brothers in interrogations spoke of “sincere repentance” and did not deny the circumstances described in the case, but refused to consider themselves guilty. To the clarifying question of the judge at the first meeting, John answered this: “What is presented to me, I admit, but I do not admit guilt, since wine is a subjective concept that is part of the internal state. I can’t call it guilty and do not consider myself guilty. ”

The relatives of the brothers were also interrogated, including their father - priest Igor Ascheulov. He was transferred to the Lipetsk and Yelets diocese in 2004, and since then he fell into news headlines several times. In December 2014, the commission on minors visited the house of Ascheulov and took nine children due to "lack of conditions for their living." They were sent to a socio-rehabilitation center, but a few weeks later they returned to the family, moving to another house at the time of the repair of the Old. The 17-year-old daughter of the priest, Euphrosyne, said that the officials who arrived to pick up their door hinges, and a woman grabbed her hair, dragged her into the yard, knocked on the snow and hit her with his fist, breaking it to blood.

At the trial, Igor Ascheulov said that he was ready to characterize his children, but “he would not stipulate anyone on the merits of the accusations. He said that “the guys were obedient, non -conflict, friendly, curious” and that they constantly helped him on the household, and John, who worked in Minsk, supported money. He did not discuss politics with his sons.

The court began to consider the case against the Asheulov brothers on July 1. Already on July 3, the prosecution requested a deadline - 18 years of a maximum security colony. “We would like to serve in one place of imprisonment,” Senior John said at the end of the meeting. “The court is not a body of execution of sentences,” the judge answered him.

The verdict was announced after a couple of hours: John - 17.5 years in a maximum security colony, Alexei and Timofeus - 17 years. The youngest Timothy spoke with the shortest last word, who stated that he had not committed “nothing immoral”, but judged him for his position. Alexei added that he condemns terrorism in all his manifestations and does not consider himself a traitor.

John, whom the judge interrupted several times, stated that it would be calmly reacted to any term as “to the board not to be an accomplice of crimes” of the Russian authorities. “You can take me any term - at least ten years, at least twenty, I have the same time. Of course, there is nothing good in spending a significant part of life in places of imprisonment, having lost health there, and possibly, in the end, life. But the main thing is the freedom of my personality, to whom you are not able to deprive me of, ”said the eldest of the brothers.

According to John, his fault lies only in the fact that he “did not give proper attention” to the crime committed by the authorities on his behalf. “As a rule, in the last word they ask not to judge strictly, they ask for condescension - I will not ask for such a thing, since I consider my position absolutely correct. I believe that you have no freedom, so you cannot give it to me, ”he added.