ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) – A St. Petersburg court on Friday sentenced a prominent history teacher accused of murdering and dismembering a student and sentencing him to 12 1/2 years in prison.
The court found 64-year-old Oleg Sokolov, who taught at St. Petersburg State University, guilty of shooting and murdering 24-year-old doctor student Anastasia Yeshchenko in his apartment in November 2019.
Sokolov was arrested after being pulled from the Moika River in front of his St. Petersburg apartment with a backpack with two arms cut inside.
The limbs were identified as Yeshchenko’s, and investigators found other body parts in the river and in Sokolov’s apartment in the historic part of St. Petersburg, less than a mile from the Hermitage Museum.
During the trial, Sokolov testified that he and Yeshchenko had a romantic relationship and that he shot her during a fight.
Prosecutors have sought a 15-year sentence.
Sokolov was known for his books on the Napoleonic era and his enthusiastic participation in recreations of historical battles, and his case attracted widespread attention in Russia.
In French, Sokolov was a prominent member of military recreation movements since the early 1990s and represented Napoleon in numerous performances of historical battles and other events.
Sokolov’s extravagant style and ardent dedication made him popular among students and he talked about his passion for the Napoleonic era in television interviews. Napoleon was his idol and history buffs would address him as “lord”, the title of emperor.