A court in Yekaterinburg delivered a verdict in the criminal case of Bakal residents Aleksey Nuriev and Roman Nasryev, who set fire to the administration building of their city. They were found guilty of committing a terrorist attack by prior conspiracy and undergoing training in terrorism and sentenced to 19 years in prison. The men will serve their sentence in a prison and a strict regime colony. According to the investigation, former employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Russian Guard, and now rock musicians, broke a window in the building of the city hall at night and threw a Molotov cocktail inside. According to media reports, the defendants admit the arson, but deny the allegations of terrorism.
The Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg announced the verdict in the criminal case of Bakal residents Alexei Nuriev and Roman Nasryev, who were charged with setting fire to the city administration building. They were found guilty of committing a terrorist act by a group of persons by prior agreement (clause “a” of part 2 of article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and of undergoing training for the purpose of carrying out terrorism (Article 205.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The defendants were sentenced to 19 years in prison each with restriction of freedom for a year and a half. The first four years they will serve in prison, the rest of the term – in a strict regime colony. This was reported to Kommersant in court and in the press service of the FSB department for the Chelyabinsk region.
The court also deprived 37-year-old Aleksey Nuriev, who previously served in the Ministry of Emergency Situations, of the special rank of retired foreman of the internal service. Former employee of the Russian Guard, 27-year-old Roman Nasryev, was stripped of the rank of retired senior police sergeant.
Residents of Bakal were detained by the FSB on suspicion of arson in October last year. As the investigation and the court established, on the night of October 11, Aleksey Nuriev and Roman Nasryev broke a window on the first floor of the city administration building and threw a Molotov cocktail inside.
The fire was extinguished by a caretaker before firefighters arrived. The window and linoleum were damaged.
Initially, a criminal case was opened against Roman Nasryev and Aleksey Nureyev for intentional destruction or damage to property (Article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), but then it was re-qualified in the direction of tightening. In addition to committing a terrorist attack by prior conspiracy, they were charged with undergoing training for the purpose of carrying out terrorism. According to the regional department of the FSB, they studied the resources of radical Internet communities, in which they received instructions on how to make homemade incendiary devices. They used this information in preparation for the attack.
Since the arrest on October 11, the defendants have been in custody. Their criminal case was investigated by the investigative body of the regional FSB. As clarified in the department, the defendants were members of the local rock band Room 32, were members of several dozen left- and right-wing radical Internet communities.
According to media reports, at the trial, both defendants in the case admitted the fact of arson, but denied the accusations of terrorism.
Roman Nasryev noted that with the help of arson he tried to convey his position – to draw attention to the fact that in Bakal there are those who disagree with the mobilization and special military operation.
Alexei Nureyev’s lawyer, Vladislav Shershikov, told Kommersant that he would be ready to comment on the position on the case later, after receiving the reasoning part of the verdict. According to him, his client was not required to compensate for the damage caused by the fire.
“A very small area was affected by the fire. 0.3 square meters were damaged. m and 0.1 sq. m of linoleum. So there is practically no damage. In addition, repairs have already been made in that room,” Vladislav Shershikov noted.
As Kommersant reported with reference to the EAN, in 2022, there were 77 attempts to set fire to military registration and enlistment offices in the cities of the Russian Federation.