Moscow.
Russian historian Oleg Sokolov, who killed and dismembered his girlfriend in 2019, was sentenced on Friday to 12.5 years in prison in a high-security prison after a media trial that lasted more than a year.
According to the judgment of the Oktiábrsky Court in St. Petersburg, Russian history will spend in prison “twelve years for murder and another 1.6 years for illegal possession of weapons.”
Sokolov, ex-professor of St. Petersburg State University, has been in pretrial detention since November last year, accused of killing his romantic partner and former student, Anastasia Yeshchenko, 24 years.
The former professor, known for his historical recreations of the Napoleonic era, previously admitted his guilt and in his last words in court said that he committed the crime in a state of “alienation”.
The prosecutor’s office I asked him historic 15 years in prison.
The murder, which shocked Russian society, took place in November 2019, when Sokolov was arrested in a state of intoxication in the Moika River with a backpack floating next to him, inside which were pieces of a human body and a pistol.
According to researchers, historic He fell into the water when he tried to remove the remains of his partner’s body, which he had killed shortly before in the common house.
Sokolov shot his girlfriend three times during a fight and then dismembered her, according to the version of the crime confirmed by Russian justice.
There is no specific law on gender-based violence in Russia yet, but it is estimated that about 14,000 women die each year in this country at the hands of their partners.