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Defense of Russian historian sentenced for student murder appeals sentence

Oleg Sokolov was sentenced to 12.5 years behind bars for a gruesome murder of a student and his lover

ST. PETERSBURG, January 12. /TASS/. The defense attorney of Russian historian Oleg Sokolov, who was earlier sentenced to 12.5 years behind bars for a gruesome murder of a student and his lover as well as for illegal possession of weapons, has appealed the verdict and asked the higher court to deliver a lighter punishment, defense attorney Sergei Lukyanov told TASS.

"Yes, I filed a complaint against the sentence. We are asking for a lighter verdict on both counts," he noted.

He added that the complaint could be considered in spring if the court accepts it. "It will be spring, around April, not any time soon," Lukyanov explained.

On December 25, 2020, historian Oleg Sokolov was sentenced to 12 years and 6 months behind bars for killing St. Petersburg State University post-graduate student and his lover Anastasia Yeshchenko as well as illegal possession of arms. The court identified that in November 2019 he shot Yeshchenko with a rifle, squeezed her neck and later dismembered the student’s body before disposing of the remains in St. Petersburg’s Moyka River to cover up the crime. Sokolov is former professor at the St. Petersburg State University. He is also well known as a Napoleonic Wars reenactment expert, author of scientific publications. The historian was also awarded the L·gion d'Honneur, top state award of France, for his research.

A representative of Yeshchenko’s family earlier said that they would not appeal Sokolov’s sentence.