The court will consider the case of the preparation of an assassination attempt on Simonyan behind closed doors.

The Second Western District Military Court decided to consider behind closed doors a criminal case on the preparation of an assassination attempt on RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan. This was reported on December 24 by a correspondent of Izvestia from the courtroom.

As specified, such a procedural decision is due to the fact that there are several minors among the 12 defendants in the case. In addition, a civil claim in the amount of 35 million rubles was filed as part of the proceedings.

On October 20, the investigation completed the investigation of the criminal case on preparations for the murder of Simonyan. Also on October 11, it was reported that some of the defendants in the case of preparing the assassination attempt on Simonyan partially admitted their guilt of hooliganism.

Assassination and punishment: The FSB prevented a terrorist attack against Metropolitan Tikhon

The attack was prepared by his assistant and a cleric of the temple, they were charged.

On August 31, 2024, it became known that investigators had opened a new criminal case as part of the investigation into the preparation of the assassination attempt on Simonyan. In particular, three defendants were charged with crimes under Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Participation in the activities of an organization that is recognized as terrorist in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation").

In July 2023, the FSB announced the detention of members of the neo-Nazi group Paragraph 88, accomplices of the Security Service of Ukraine, who were preparing an assassination attempt on Simonyan. The defendants were placed under arrest by court order. The service stressed that a reward of 1.5 million rubles was expected for the murder of one journalist on assignment.

One of those who prepared the crime, Mikhail Balashov, confessed that he was carrying out a task for the Ukrainian special services. The young man, born in 2005, explained that he had organized the neo-Nazi group Paragraph 88 and had attracted minors to participate in it.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.