MOSCOW, October 23 (RAPSI) – A prosecutor has asked the Lyublinsky District Court in Moscow to sentence an alleged member of the New Greatness movement to 7 years in penal colony for organization of an extremist movement, RAPSI has learnt in the court.

In October 2019, the case of Pavel Rebrovsky was sent back to a lower court for reconsideration. The Moscow City Court therefore overturned a 2.5-year jail sentence passed on him. The first trial of Rebrovsky was held without examination of evidence and witness interrogation as the defendant had pleaded guilty. However, he failed to fulfill the plea deal conditions that led to the sentence vacation and retrial.

On August 6, other New Greatness defendants Dmitry Poletayev, Maxim Roshchin, Maria Dubovik and Anna Pavlikova received 6, 6.5, 6 and 4 years of suspended sentence respectively. The movement’s leader Ruslan Kostylenkov was ordered to serve 7 years in penal colony; Vyacheslav Kryukov and Petr Karamzin were imprisoned for 6.5 and 6 years in jail respectively. The court found that had created the community for a violent upheaval.

Prosecutors earlier asked the court to sentence alleged leader of the extremist movement Kostylenkov to 7.5 years in penal colony; Karamzin and Kryukov to 6.5 and 6 years behind bars respectively. Suspended terms were demanded for other defendants.

The defendants were arrested in March 2018. Investigators stated that they followed far-right ideas and that their leader claimed that he planned to establish a new order in Russia.

The New Greatness case became a subject of public controversy because the defense has information that the movement itself was organized by a law enforcement officer.