The former governor of Russia’s Khabarovsk region Sergei Furgal, an opponent of the Kremlin, was sentenced Friday to 22 years in prison for the murder of two businessmen in 2004 and 2005 in a case denounced by himself and his supporters as political persecution.
Furgal and an accomplice, Nikolai Mistriukov, organized the murders of Yevgeny Zorya and Oleg Bulatov over a business dispute, and conspired to murder a third, Alexander Smolski, according to the indictment filed by the Prosecutor’s Office.
The governor’s arrest in July 2020 sparked one of the most intense protests in recent years against the Kremlin in support of Furgal, a member of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and an outspoken opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party.
Three others accused of complicity have received sentences ranging from 9 to 21 years in prison, according to the verdict of the Liubertsi city court reported by Interfax.
After hearing the sentence, Frugal has vociferously insisted on the political persecution he has been subjected to during his investigation and proclaimed that he intends to appeal his case until the last possible avenue is exhausted, according to the Russian agency.
At least 23 people were detained in the context of these protests, to which Moscow responded cautiously as they lacked leaders and were an internal matter, for which the Kremlin could not blame interference by foreign powers, as it has done in other demonstrations against the Kremlin.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
