(Moscow) A court in the Moscow region on Friday sentenced to 22 years in prison an ex-governor, Sergei Furgal, whose arrest in the summer of 2020 had provoked large and rare opposition demonstrations in the Russian Far East. .
The defendant, who maintains his innocence, was found guilty of ordering two murders and another attack between 2004 and 2005, according to the Russian press agencies, which specify that he will have to serve his sentence “in a colony in harsh diet.
His lawyer, Boris Kojemiakine, told the Ria-Novosti agency that his client was going to appeal.
Governor of the immense Khabarovsk region between 2018 and 2020, Sergei Fourgal, 52, enjoyed significant popularity in this territory. He was elected by largely defeating a candidate from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s party.
Mr. Fourgal represented the nationalist LDPR party, subject to the Kremlin, but whose elected officials, especially in the regions, can sometimes be more critical of power.
He was arrested on July 9, 2020, triggering demonstrations to obtain his release which had mobilized thousands of people for weeks, mainly in Khabarovsk.
His supporters claimed his arrest was political. Another member of the LDPR party, Mikhail Degtyarev, was appointed governor of the region after his arrest.
Sergei Fourgal, who was tried in Moscow, thousands of kilometers from Khabarovsk, is accused of having ordered the murders of two businessmen and of having organized an attack against another entrepreneur between 2004 and 2005.
Three other men, accused of being his accomplices, were also sentenced on Friday to terms ranging from nine and a half to 21 years in prison, Russian news agencies said.
Large-scale opposition demonstrations are very rare in Russian regions, where the authorities tend to repress them less brutally, for fear of causing a stir far from Moscow.