Darya Trepova: Russian woman sentenced to 27 years for St Petersburg cafe bombing

A 26-year-old Russian woman was jailed for 27 years on Thursday after being convicted in the case of cafe bombing that killed a pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky last year. 

Darya Trepova, was convicted by a St Petersburg court. Along with murder, she was convicted on charges including terrorism.

Tatarsky was killed by a bomb concealed inside a statuette given by Trepova as he was about to talk in St Petersburg cafe.

However, Trepova denied all charges and said she had been set up. She said she thought the statuette contained a listening device, not a bomb. 

Also, Trepova said in court that she was acting under orders from a man in Ukraine.

She said that the man had been sending her money and instructions for several months before the bombing incident in April.

Meanwhile, the prosecution argued that she had known about the bomb and “acted deliberately with the aim of destabilising the Russian Federation and discrediting the special military operation.”

After the incident, though Trepova was told to head for the airport and catch a flight, she stayed back at her husband's friend’s, Dmitry Kasintsev, apartment. She was later arrested in April.

Kasintsev was sentenced on Thursday to one year and nine months for helping her to hide, despite testimony from Trepova that she had never met him before and he had nothing to do with the bomb.