Russian Alexander Ignatenko, one of three who returned to Moscow from Sri Lanka after two years of litigation in the case of collecting beetles, said that he did not fully believe in the accomplished arrival at home.
According to him, what was happening in Sri Lanka was like an absurdity and a bad dream, all these two years the friends literally could not prove their innocence.
“There were no forbidden (beetles – Ed.), all this time we tried, all these two years, to prove, but it is impossible to prove it. They just set such conditions that you will prove it for years. Now I still do not quite believe in what is happening here, that we have finally returned to Russia. As in all this, because it all looked like a bad dream, absurdity, ”Ignatenko shared on Tuesday, February 1, immediately after arriving at the Moscow airport.
Earlier Tuesday, the Russian embassy in Colombo reported that Alexander Ignatenko, Artem Ryabov and Nikolai Kilafyan were allowed to return to their homeland after paying a fine of more than $14,000.
On the same day, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, thanked the Russian embassy in Colombo, Ambassador Yuri Materiya and philanthropist Fattah Chodiev for the fact that the story of “collecting bugs” in Sri Lanka was over.
The sentencing trial took place on 21 January. The Russians were ordered to pay a fine by March 11 and were given a suspended sentence of two years, the defendants pleaded guilty.
At the end of February 2020, three employees of the Rostov zoo were detained in Sri Lanka on suspicion of harming the environment by causing death to beetles and other small animal species.
According to the citizens of the Russian Federation, they collected only dead insects, which they photographed and threw away, moreover, they did this outside the reserve in accordance with local legislation.
However, in June 2020, all three were placed under arrest. Then their lawyer said that the Russians could be released under the guarantee of local residents, but they agreed to vouch only for money, which the arrested did not have. According to the human rights activist, they were not provided with an interpreter and were kept in a cell for 100 people along with those accused of serious crimes.
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