A terrorist case has been opened against two teenagers from Transbaikalia who were accused of setting a forest fire.
A criminal case for committing a terrorist act by conspiracy was opened against two 16-year-old schoolchildren who were previously detained on suspicion of setting fire to a forest in the village. Atamanovka.
Investigators claim that a certain individual, "presumably located in Ukraine," promised to pay them 80 rubles for the arson. The teenagers allegedly filmed their actions and sent a report to their supervisor, but never received the money.
A case of forest arson was previously opened against the teenagers. The damage caused by their actions is estimated at over 300 million rubles. They have been in pretrial detention since July 19.
One of the defendants is from an orphanage. The mother of another teenager claimed that after her son's arrest, he was "taken to the woods, abused, threatened, had wires attached to his genitals, and was electrocuted."
This year, wildfires in the region have engulfed a record-breaking area of 2,7 million hectares. Earlier, the governor Transbaikal Alexander Osipov He called for "more effective identification and punishment of those responsible for arson." He stated that the "absolute majority" of fires were caused by arson.