A citizen of the Russian Federation, who trespassed the Armenia-Turkey border in February of this year, has been sentenced to 7 years in prison by the first instance court of general jurisdiction of Armavir Province of Armenia, based on the court judgment published in the Judicial Information System, according to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

On February 16, 2020, capital inspector of the Railways of Russia CJSC, 56-year-old Georgy Kabiokov crossed the Akhuryan River from Turkey, trespassed the state border protected by Armenia without proper authorization, continued the road and headed towards the borderline Bagaran village where he was detected and apprehended by officers of the National Security Service of Armenia. in Armenia, Kabiokov was record-registered by the consular service and received the right to shelter in the territory of Armenia. The citizen of the Russian Federation is charged with trespassing the state border protected by Armenia without proper authorization, and arrest has been selected as a pre-trial measure against him.

Kabiokov has pleaded fully guilty as charged. In his testimony, the man said he and his wife had traveled from Russia to the Turkish city of Antalya for a vacation on January 16, 2020. Days later, he met some women at a hotel, one of whom touched him and left, after which Turkish police officers visited his suite and summoned him to the nearby police station where they drew up records with an interpreter and lawyer. In the morning, he was escorted to a court where the judge told him that he was suspected of a crime and couldn’t leave Turkey. After the court hearing, Kabiokov returned to the hotel, called the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Turkey and shared the story, but he was told that the Embassy couldn’t do anything to help him. After that, he and his wife went to another hotel in Antalya. On February 4, the Russian man hired a lawyer who read the case materials and recommended that he leave Turkey because he would face 8-12 years in jail. Based on the testimony, other people offered to solve the problem with dismissal of the criminal case for EUR 300,000 and threatened that he wouldn’t stay alive, if sent to jail. Later, he paid a citizen money in installments, and in the period between February 14 and 16, 2020, he was transported to the Armenia-Turkey border in a car, after which he crossed the river and trespassed the border on his own.

During the court hearing, the accused-on-trial pleaded fully guilty, repented and filed a motion with the court for an expedited hearing, and the court upheld the motion. When imposing the punishment, the court viewed the fact that he had regretted committing the crime, wasn’t previously convicted, didn’t have defects and was taking care of a woman on pension and two adult sons as mitigating liability and punishment.