ST. PETERSBURG, January 25. /TASS/. A court has sentenced Darya Trepova to 27 years in a medium-security prison with a 600,000-ruble (about $6,753) fine and two years probation upon release in the case of the terrorist attack in a St. Petersburg cafe where military correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky (real name Maxim Fomin) was killed, TASS reports from the courtroom.
"On the aggregate of crimes, in accordance with parts 3 and 4 of article 69 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, to determine the final punishment for Trepova <…> in the form of deprivation of liberty for a term of 27 years to serve the sentence in a medium-security prison with two years probation and a fine of 600,000 rubles," presiding judge Timur Zhidkov said.
Trepova's sentence is the strictest verdict for a woman in the history of Russia. Previously, the longest sentence was 25 years. The current law does not envisage life imprisonment for women.
The court found Trepova guilty of all charges against her - a terrorist attack committed by an organized group resulting in the intentional death of a person, illegal possession of explosive devices, as well as using forged documents for the purpose of covering up another crime.
The court found Dmitry Kasintsev guilty of harboring Trepova after the terrorist attack and sentenced him to one year and nine months in a medium-security prison. The defendant was taken into custody in the courtroom (previously he was under house arrest).
Earlier, during deliberations, the prosecutor asked for 28 years in a medium-security prison for Trepova with two years probation after she has served her term, and one year and ten months - for Kasintsev. In addition, the prosecutor requested a fine of 800,000 rubles (about $9,100) for Trepova.
According to investigators, on April 2, 2023, Trepova, acting upon instructions from certain individuals based in Ukraine, brought a statuette, which was filled with explosives, to a cafe in downtown St. Petersburg and presented it as a gift to Fomin. Minutes later, the statuette exploded, killing the blogger and injuring 52 others.