The public prosecutor has requested a six-year term in a juvenile detention centre for a 17-year-old on trial for throwing a Molotov cocktail that failed to ignite at a military recruitment office.
A court in St. Petersburg has found Yegor Balazeykin guilty on terror charges after he attempted to set fire to multiple military conscription centres, sentencing him to six years in a juvenile detention centre. His defence team plans to appeal the verdict. Balazeykin has already spent nine months in a pre-trial detention facility, meaning he will have five years and three months left to serve in the centre.
Yegor Balazeykin in court. Photo: Novaya Gazeta Europe
St. Petersburg schoolboy Yegor Balazeykin, who has been in pre-trial detention since March, made three attempts to set fire to military recruitment offices in February, according to prosecutors. While he was initially charged with hooliganism, investigators later decided to charge him under anti-terrorism legislation instead, which could lead to a far more severe sentence.
The state of the teenager’s health — he suffers from multiple chronic illnesses — has worsened considerably since his detention began last year. A medical examination confirmed that Balazeykin was suffering from advanced liver fibrosis due to congenital autoimmune hepatitis, which until last year was latent but is now advancing rapidly.
“Yegor’s feet are rotting and there’s some erosion in his intestines. The fibrosis went to grade 2 in seven months,” his mother Tatyana said at an appeal hearing in September. His lawyer said that he was routinely examined and treated too late, contributing to the worsening of his condition.
