TOMSK, Russia – The Regional Court of Tomsk has announced sentence on members of a criminal group that was responsible for putting up an anti-Semitic poster with an explosive planted within it. That incident took place in 2002.
In July 2002, the felons put the booby-trapped poster with "Death to Jews" slogan on a road near Tomsk. Exactly as they had planned, an explosion went off when two passing men tried to remove it. The two men were hospitalized with shrapnel injuries as a result of the shell’s explosion, triggered by a trip wire hooked below the poster.
Later on, members of this group have twice spilled mercury in a local restaurant owned by a Jewish person. The investigation showed that they also tried to blow up the Synagogue in Tomsk and committed two murders. “Lukyanchikov’s abnormal behavior is probably connected to the fact that in 1944, his father was sentenced by the Soviet government for aiding Fascists in Ukraine,” explained the District Attorney’s Chief Assistant Galina Zhoga.
Chief Assistant to the District Attorney informed the courts that the group’s head, Victor Lukyanchikov, an owner of a local bakery, admitted to being guilty of terrorism, banditry and incitement of national hatred. For these crimes, he was sentenced to a total of 23 years in prison. Another participant of the group, Igor Kirillov, received 20 years in prison, while the third member of the group, Vladimir Istomin, received a conditional penalty of six years and one month followed by a four-year probationary period.
The leadership of the Jewish community of Tomsk, a member of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, is relieved to see that such horrendous crimes were taken seriously and that the prosecution was successful in bringing these hate-mongering criminals to justice.
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