Historian Sokolov was involved in shipwreck in 1980s, in which man was killed, but has no conviction for that - lawyer
ST. PETERSBURG. Nov 28 (Interfax) - Academic Oleg Sokolov, who is charged with murder, has confirmed to lawyer Alexander Pochuyev that he was involved in an accident in the Gulf of Finland, in which a man was killed, during the shoot of the film Rossiya Molodaya (The Young Russia).
Pochuyev said, citing his client's testimony, that the historian was indeed involved in the shipwreck of the frigate Svyatoi Georgy in 1981, in which biologist Vladimir Sorokin was killed. However, there is no official information on his conviction, the lawyer said.
"It is impossible to confirm the authenticity of the 'sentence' that has appeared on the Internet. There are no signatures, stamp or information on its source. The document has no relation to the tragedy that is being investigated," Pochuyev said.
The publication Fontanka.ru earlier published a copy of the sentence allegedly handed down to Sokolov by Leningrad's Sestroretsky District People's Court in 1982. According to the document, the historian was given a suspended prison sentence for violating safety rules on water transport causing a person's death.
Information on Sokolov's criminal record surfaced in the media before as well. The lawyer then called such reports "misinformation" intended to "fully slander the historian."
St. Petersburg historian Sokolov is charged with murdering his live-in partner, 24-year-old St. Petersburg State University postgraduate student Anastasia Yeshchenko. According to the investigators, Yeshchenko was murdered with a small-caliber sawed-off rifle in the early hours of November 8. Sokolov later dismembered her body and disposed of several parts in the Moika River. The historian has pleaded guilty.