The Supreme Court of Crimea found Ukrainian businessman Lenur Islyamov guilty of organizing an energy blockade of the peninsula. He was sentenced in absentia to 19 years in a strict regime colony.
The lawyer said that his client did not agree with the court's decision and planned to appeal the verdict.
In the spring of 2014, Islyamov worked as Deputy Prime Minister in the Russian Crimea, but he was dismissed for ineffective work. After that, the businessman left for Ukraine.
He was later charged in absentia with sabotage, which caused the peninsula to be completely de-energized in late November 2015: all four power lines coming from Ukraine were knocked out due to blowing the poles. Crimea and Sevastopol introduced a state of emergency and emergency power outage schedules. The situation had improved with the gradual launch of the 800 MW power bridge from the Krasnodar Krai. The last, fourth, line began operating in May 2016.
In addition, Islyamov appears in a criminal case on the establishment in 2016 of an illegal Crimean Tatar armed formation - the Noman Chelebidzhikhan Battalion. He was also accused of public calls for extremist activities.
As the judge specified, the convicted person is registered in Simferopol, has Russian citizenship and is on the federal wanted list since 2016.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Serg Glovny \ Zuma \ TASS
Based on materials from RIA Novosti