Three Russians were sentenced by a court in France to terms of one to two years after the riots in Marseille ahead of the England-Russia match at Euro 2016. Among the sentenced citizens of Russia are football fan Nikolai Morozov, director of work with fans of FC Lokomotiv Alexei Yerunov and director of the fan club of the Tula football club Arsenal Sergey Gorbachev. It was reported on Thursday, June 16, by the AFP agency.
Morozov received the shortest term of 12 months. Gorbachev was sentenced to 18 months and Yerunov to 24 months. They will also not be able to enter France for two years.
This information was confirmed by the Russian Embassy in France. Sergei Parinov, a press officer of the Russian diplomatic mission in France, told Interfax that until the embassy received a written indictment, it had only verbal confirmation. Tomorrow, as expected, the diplomatic mission will receive written confirmation and then decide how to proceed in this situation.
At the same time, Parinov refused to answer the question whether the Russian side would take countermeasures in response to the verdict that was passed by the French court.
Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs Dmitry Svishchev (LDPR), commenting on the verdict in an interview with RIA Novosti, said that the Russian Foreign Ministry should not ignore it. According to the deputy, even if Russian citizens are involved in something, the embassy and the Russian foreign policy department should defend the interests of Russians in any case and provide them with protection.
Andrei Yurov, head of the commission on human rights abroad in the Russian HRC, was surprised that the trial over the Russians had gone so quickly. He noted that Russia is obliged to help its citizens “regardless of whether they are fans or not, have done or not done, but the state must help its citizens to ensure normal access to protection.”
Earlier, UEFA punished the Russian Football Union with a fine of 150,000 euros and conditionally disqualified the Russian team until the end of the European Championship after investigating the riots at the match with the British (1: 1) in Marseille. On Tuesday morning, French police detained a bus carrying Russian fans in Mandelieu-la-Napoule, southern France, on their way to Lille for a Russian national team match. According to local authorities, there were 43 Russians on the bus.
On Thursday, it became known that 20 fans out of 43 detainees who have not been charged under criminal charges will be expelled from France on Monday. Among them is the president of the All-Russian Association of Supporters (VOB) Alexander Shprygin. Another 20 Russian football fans detained on Tuesday have been released from custody, but a decision has not yet been made on them.
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