Saratov Court Sentences Writer Eduard Limonov to Four Years Imprisonment

The Saratov regional court has sentenced well-known writer and National Bolshevik Party /NBP/ leader Eduard Limonov /Savenko/ to four years in a general regime colony. Five activists of Limonov's organisation have been sentenced to terms ranging from two years and three months to three and a half years.

A RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the courtroom that Limonov was found guilty of organising the illegal acquisition of weapons and ammunition by NBP activists /Article 33, Part 3 and Article 222, Part 3/.

Sergei Aksyonov, founder of the Limonka newspaper, was found guilty of the same offence.

NBP activists Dmitry Karyagin and Vladimir Pentelyuk were sentenced to two and a half years each in jail, and Nina Silina to two years and four months. Oleg Laletin was handed down a sentence of two years and three months in prison. These four NBA activists, who belong to different regional branches of the party, were found guilty of illegal acquisition, possession and transportation of firearms and ammunition.

The court dismissed most of the charges pressed by the Federal Security Service against Limonov and Aksyonov.

The court failed "to find confirmation" for charges that Limonov and Aksyonov called for a violent seizure of power and changing the constitutional system, that they prepared acts of terrorism, and also attempted to set up illegal armed formations.

In the court's view, the fact of acquiring weapons is not proof that preparations were made for terrorist acts which, according to the investigation, National Bolsheviks planned to organise on Kazakh territory. The charge under this count "is not convincing", because the investigation failed to establish "the place, time and method of planned terrorist acts," the verdict reads.