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28 October 2020, 18:14Prosecutors seeking 18 years in penal colony for head of Russian cell of Aum Shinrikyo
Rostov-on-Don, October 28, Interfax - The state prosecutor, during the hearing of arguments in Russia's Southern District Military Court, sought 18 years in a penal colony for Mikhail Ustyantsev, the head of the Russian cell of the Aum Shinrikyo terrorist community (banned in Russia), the court press service told Interfax on Wednesday.
"The state prosecutor is seeking 18 years in a penal colony for Ustyantsev; the defense lawyers haven't spoken yet. The next hearing is scheduled for November 9," the press service said.
It was reported earlier that Federal Security Service officers put a stop to Ustyantsev's activities when he was organizing the latest gathering of cell members on May 1, 2018, and he was later arrested.
Ustyantsev has been charged with setting up a terrorist community, organizing the activities of a terrorist organization, creating a religious or social organization whose work is associated with violence against citizens or the infliction of other harm to their health, and heading such a community.
According to investigators, Ustyantsev was the head of the Russian cell of Aum Shinrikyo, whose activities are banned in accordance with a decision of the Russian Supreme Court. He organized the dissemination among residents of Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Volgograd of a religious doctrine "encouraging regular adepts to give him money, which he passed to the Japanese leaders of the terrorist community Aum Shinrikyo, thus financing terrorism."
Ustyantsev's accomplices have been declared wanted.
Members of Aum Shinrikyo released poisonous sarin gas in the Tokyo metro in March 1995. A total of 13 people were killed and about 6,000 were hurt in the attack. |