Crimean Prosecutors Seek Four-Year Prison Term For Maidan Activist

Maidan activist Oleksandr Kostenko

Crimea's prosecutors are seeking more than four years in prison for a man accused of attacking a Ukrainian security officer in Kyiv during the February 2014 protests in Kyiv against pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Natalya Poklonskaya, prosecutor-general of the Ukrainian territory that was annexed by Russia last year, asked a court in Simferopol to convict local resident Oleksandr Kostenko and sentence him to four years and three months in prison, her office said on May 14.

Prosecutors on the Black Sea peninsula have charged Kostenko with intentionally inflicting bodily harm on the security officer during the so-called "Euromaidan" protests.

The court is scheduled to hand down its verdict on May 15.

The alleged crime took place more than a month before Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014, which a majority of UN member nations consider illegal.