Russian court sentences woman convicted for death of pro-war blogger

A Russian woman accused in the death of a pro-Ukraine war blogger was sentenced Thursday to 27 years behind bars by a court in St. Petersburg.

The sentence comes after Daria Trepova was found guilty of terrorism charges for handing a miniature statue to Russian blogger Vladlen Tatarsky that was rigged with explosives, according to the state-run outlet TASS.

The explosion in early April at a cafe in St. Petersburg killed Tatarsky and injured dozens of other people.

Trepova, 26, pleaded not guilty before the trial began in November, arguing she handed the statue to Tatarsyk but did not know it was filled with explosives. However, she admitted partial guilt for forging documents.

The court sentenced her Thursday to a penal colony and also fined her the equivalent of $6,000 in U.S. dollars, according to TASS.

Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxim Fomin, was an ardent supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine and ran a blogging channel documenting the conflict.

Dmitry Kasintsev, an alleged acquaintance of Trepova’s, is currently under house arrest and awaiting a trial on charges of concealing a grave crime.

Russia has accused Ukrainian authorities of directly orchestrating the plot and supplying Trepova with explosives, though Kyiv has blamed the incident on internal, domestic tensions in Russia.