Resident of Berdyansk in the temporarily occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia sentenced to 12 years

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the sentence of Vitaly Rastorguyev, a resident of occupied Berdyansk, whom the Russian side accused of allegedly preparing an assassination attempt on representatives of the occupation administration of the Zaporizhzhia region. Thus, the sentence of 12 years in prison became legally binding.

According to the version of the Russian investigation, the man was allegedly “recruited by Ukrainian special services” and planned to blow up a car with representatives of the so-called military-civilian administration, in particular the Gauleiter of Berdyansk Oleksandr Saulenko, during a public event. At the same time, it is alleged that the explosives were allegedly discovered before they were activated.

Based on these allegations, Rastorguyev was found guilty of “attempted act of international terrorism.” The court of first instance sentenced him to 12 years in prison, and the appeal and cassation left this decision unchanged.

As is known, the man was detained in July 2022 in occupied Berdyansk. Within a few weeks, Russian resources published a video with his “confession”, as well as footage with the allegedly found explosives and Ukrainian symbols.

After his detention, Rastorguev was without contact with the outside world for a long time. It later became known that he was held in a pre-trial detention center in occupied Crimea, after which he was transferred to Rostov-on-Don, where the case was considered by a military court.

Human rights activists draw attention to the contradictions in the case materials. In particular, the documents indicate a different date of detention – December 2022, although the man was already shown in Russian propaganda videos in the summer. This may indicate attempts to hide the circumstances of his illegal detention.

After the final court decision, Rastorguev was added to the Russian list of “terrorists and extremists.”