The 2nd Western District Military Court in Moscow has sentenced three sons of a Lipetsk priest Igor Ashcheulov, who were trying to get to Ukraine. According to the indictment, they were going to fight in the pro-Ukrainian legion “Freedom of Russia,” Medizona reports.
19-year-old Timofey and 20-year-old Alexey were sentenced to 17 years in prison, and 24-year-old Ioann was sentenced to 17.5 years. They will have to spend the first three years of their sentence in prison, and the rest of their term in a maximum security penal colony. The prosecutor’s office asked for 18 years in prison.
The young men were found guilty of attempted treason (Article 275 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code with the application of Part 3 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code), illegal border crossing (Part 3 of Article 322 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code with the application of Part 3 of Article 30 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code) and participation in a terrorist organization (Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code with the application of Part 3 of Article 30 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code).
As the publication adds, the brothers did not participate in the debate. The prosecution, represented by prosecutor Eduard Matveychik, considered the fact that the Ashcheulovs “actively assisted the investigation” as a mitigating circumstance, as well as the illness of their mother Elizaveta. However, aggravating circumstances were also found: according to the investigation, the crime was committed during the war and for political reasons. The lawyers of the convicted men – Mikhail Shakhov, Alexander Zinkov and Olga Borodina – asked to impose a sentence below the minimum limit, taking into account the mitigating circumstances.
In their final statement, the brothers noted that they had good intentions: they wanted to fight on the side of Ukraine since they do not support the war. John added that he “did not want to be an accomplice to the crimes committed by the Russian government.”
“Russia does not need a war against Ukraine, Putin personally needs it. The fact of my birth does not oblige me to support the government in everything. I consider myself a free person and free to make choices. <…> You can give me any sentence – 10 or 20 years – I will treat it the same. The loss of part of my life, and perhaps my health, against the backdrop of many thousands of innocent people who died, looks completely pale,” said Ioann.
The brothers refused to admit guilt in the legal sense. As Mediazona notes, Judge Timur Zhidkov interrupted the brothers when they tried to condemn the war and President Vladimir Putin.
What is known about the case
The court hearing began on 1 July. According to Mediazona, the brothers were detained back in July 2023 on the border with Ukraine, in the Kursk region. However, their detention only became known on 14 June 2024, when the investigation was completed and the court accepted the materials for consideration. At the same time, all three brothers were included in the register of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring.
According to the indictment, the Ashcheulov brothers were planning to join the Freedom of Russia Legion and contacted its representatives via Telegram. They then made a “joint decision to participate in military actions to confront Russia. ” According to the investigation, this occurred “approximately between 22 December 2022 to 5 February 2023.”
According to RIA Novosti, in July 2023, Ioann, Timofey and Alexey went to the Kursk region, where they were spotted by FSB Border Service officers one and a half kilometres from the border. A tool for dismantling a fence was allegedly found in the backpack of one of them. First, the brothers were arrested for 10 days, and then a criminal case was opened.
On 1 July, the father of the convicted men testified at the hearing. He described his sons as obedient, non-confrontational, friendly and inquisitive. According to the priest, he did not know about his sons’ intention to go to war and did not talk to them about politics at all.
The priest’s family
Igor Ashcheulov, his wife Elizaveta and their children have lived in Lipetsk Oblast since 2004, after the priest was transferred there from a parish in Stavropol Krai. During this time, they have been the subject of several scandals.
In 2007, a criminal case was opened against the priest for threatening to kill based on a statement from his wife, but she later told the publication Sobesednik that she had deliberately framed her husband.
A year after these events, Ashcheulov was removed from church service due to his rude attitude towards parishioners and for leaving the parish without permission.
In 2014, the Commission on Minors’ Affairs took away all nine children from the priest’s family, who were then between the ages of 3 and 17. The formal reason for this was “inadequate living conditions”, also a threat to the children’s lives and health. They tried to limit the priest’s parental rights through the courts.
Ashcheulov then stated that the school principal filed the statement against him. This happened after he wanted to transfer one of his sons, who was in first grade at the time, to home schooling. In 2015, the Lipetsk Regional Court found the actions of the inspectors who broke into the priest’s home to be illegal.
Yuri Fedorov
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