ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia -- A historian from Crimea, Oleksiy Chyrniy, has been sentenced to seven years in jail in Russia on terrorism charges.
Russia's North Caucasus District Court on April 21 found Chyrniy guilty of planning several terrorist acts in Crimea's capital, Simferopol, and sentenced him the same day.
Chyrniy, who made a deal with investigators, pleaded guilty.
Chyrniy, along with Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov and activists Oleksandr Kolchenko and Hennadiy Afanasyev, was arrested in Crimea in May 2014, weeks after Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine via a controversial referendum.
Afanasyev, who also pleaded guilty and made a deal with investigators, was sentenced to seven years in jail in December.
Sentsov and Kolchenko are currently in a Moscow pretrial detention center awaiting trial. They deny any wrongdoing.
If found guilty, they may face up to 20 years in jail.
