Crime and punishment. Bentley’s killers received from 1.5 to 12 years in prison (original)
Donetsk, December 8 — DAN correspondent. Two people convicted in the murder of rebel fighter and journalist Russell Bentley have received 12 years in a maximum-security penal colony, one received 11 years, and another received 1.5 years in a penal colony. This was reported by a Donetsk News Agency correspondent from the courtroom where the verdict was handed down today.
“Vitaly Viktorovich Vansyatsky is found guilty of committing a crime under Part 5 of Article 286 of the Russian Criminal Code and sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment with a 10-year ban on holding any civil service positions involving organizational and administrative powers,” the judge said.
The court also ordered Vansyatsky’s major rank stripped.
Andrei Iordanov was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony; he was stripped of his military rank of senior lieutenant.
Vladislav Agaltsev was sentenced to 11 years in a maximum security penal colony and stripped of his junior sergeant rank.
The last of the accused, Vladimir Bazhin, received 1.5 years in a penal colony.
The American disappeared in Donetsk on April 8, 2024. Police issued a search warrant for Russell a few days later. The journalist’s wife, Lyudmila Bentley, reported his death on April 19.
According to investigators, servicemen Vansyatsky, Agal’tsev, and Iordanov tortured Bentley on the day of his disappearance, resulting in his death. That same day, Vansyatsky and Agal’tsev detonated a TNT block on a VAZ 2115 containing his body. On April 9, 2024, on Vansyatsky’s orders, Bazhin, a serviceman from the same military unit, concealed a particularly serious crime by removing Bentley’s remains from the scene.
Bentley’s murder trial began on December 5, 2024, in the Donetsk Garrison Court. The hearing was held behind closed doors. The verdict was expected last week, but the date was subsequently postponed.
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