Appeals court approves life sentence for Prilepin assassination attempt defendant

The military court of appeal has approved a life sentence for Ukrainian citizen Oleksandr Permyakov (listed in the Russian Federation in the register of terrorists and extremists) accused of attempting to assassinate writer Zakhar Prilepin. The corresponding decision was made at the meeting on January 22.

"The court considered the appeal of Permyakov's defense against the decision of the court of first instance and decided to leave Permyakov's sentence unchanged," TASS quoted the judge as saying.

The Second Western District Military Court sentenced Permyakov to life imprisonment in a strict regime colony on September 30, 2024. As Izvestia correspondent reported from the courtroom, in addition, the man was also given a fine of 1.5 million rubles.

The car Audi Q7, in which the writer Prilepin was riding, was blown up on May 6, 2023 in Nizhny Novgorod region. At the time of the explosion in the car in the passenger seat was an associate of the writer Alexander Shubin, he died.

On the same day on suspicion of the crime was detained Alexander Permyakov, who in his youth had already been sentenced to seven years in prison for participation in the beating of a man. He told about connections with members of the special services of Ukraine. The man planted the explosive device on the road and later detonated it remotely. The Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case under the article "Terrorist act".

The trial against him began on September 12, 2024 in the 2nd Western District Military Court. He was charged with committing a terrorist act (paragraph "b" of part 3 of article 205 of the Criminal Code), undergoing training for the purpose of terrorist activity (article 205.3 of the Criminal Code), illegal trafficking in weapons and the manufacture of explosive devices (part 4 of article 222 and part 3 of article 223.1 of the Criminal Code), acquisition and possession of a knowingly forged certificate to facilitate the commission of another crime (part 4 of article 327 of the Criminal Code).

Then Permyakov pleaded guilty, and on September 27 the state prosecution requested to sentence him to life imprisonment.