The Cassation Court of the Supreme Court on Friday, May 21, ruled the absence of corpus delicti in the actions of Major General Viktor Nazarov who had been sentenced to a seven-year prison term for "neglect of duty" 's act.
The court has thus acquitted the former chief of staff and first deputy head of the Anti-Terrorist Operation over the downing by the enemy by a Ukrainian IL-76 military transport plane which killed 49 servicemen.
That's according to the Supreme Court's press service.
Read alsoPS752 downing by Iran intentional act of terrorism, Canada court rulesThe decision established as incorrect the conclusion of lower-instance courts that Nazarov had the opportunity to prevent a terrorist act, as a result of which the Il-76-MD plane was shot down and 49 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were killed is incorrect.
Background
- The Il-76 plane was downed with the use of a Russian anti-aircraft system in June 2014 when landing at Luhansk airport. Nine crew members and 40 paratroopers of the 25th Dnipropetrovsk Separate Airborne Brigade aboard were killed in that terrorist attack.
- On March 27, 2017, Major General Viktor Nazarov, who at the time of the tragedy headed the Anti-Terrorist Operation Staff, was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of neglect of duty and inaction in the Il-76 case.
- The Chervonohvardiysky District Court of Dnipro on Tuesday, March 16, ruled in absentia to sentence to life imprisonment the ex-leader of the "LPR" terrorist organization, Igor Plotnitsky, along with the two warlords in command of Russian proxy forces, Andrei Patrushev and Alexander Gureev, on charges of shooting down a Ukrainian military Il-76 plane on approach to Luhansk Airport back in June 2014.
