Chaplain of "Right Sector" sentenced to 7 years for robbery

The delivery of the judgement. Photo: facebook / Vladislav Bovtruk

After 5 years of litigation, the Shevchenko District Court of Kyiv sentenced the military chaplain of the "Right Sector" Vasily Kosiachenko to 7 years in prison for robbery. Vladislav Bovtruk, one of the journalists who was attacked by Kosiachenko in 2016, reported this on his Facebook page.

Bovtruk recalled that on the night of February 21, 2016, a group of unknown persons led by "Aydar” member Alexander Zolotukhin wanted to kidnap him along with his colleague Andrei Pavlovsky, allegedly for the fact that Channel 17, for which they worked then, belonged to officials of the Yanukovych time.

“The kidnappers then managed to wring our hands and push us into a car to take us out in an unknown direction, but we were beaten off by another group of nationalists who knew me and Andrei personally and did not agree with the accusation of Zolotukhin and Co. After that, the attackers went to the office of the TV channel, smashed the control room, beat the security guard and stole studio equipment worth more than UAH 300 thousand. There were more than 14 attackers, but only one, military chaplain Vasily Kosiachenko, was detained and brought to justice,” the journalist wrote.

He noted that “priest” Kosiachenko was caught driving a car with “stolen equipment, a pistol, marijuana and a water heater”.

As a result, Kosyachenko was charged under three articles: robbery (part 4 of article 186 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), illegal imprisonment (part 2 of article 146) and obstruction of journalistic activities (part 1 of article 171).

The litigation lasted five years. As a result, the court acquitted the chaplain on two articles and gave a term for robbery - 7 years in prison.

“In fact, if Kosyachenko had not been caught driving a car in which he was trying to take out the stolen equipment, he would most likely have escaped responsibility altogether,” stated Vladislav Bovtruk.

The UOJ wrote that in 2014-2015 Kosiachenko took part in hostilities in the Donbass, served as commander of one of the "Right Sector" units. He began his church career in the UOC-KP in mid-2016, at the beginning of 2017 he already became an "archpriest" and served in Konstantinovka, Donetsk region.

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