MOSCOW. July 16 (Interfax) - A Moscow military court has given a long prison term to 27-year-old Paraguay citizen Lugo Jimenez Jorge Adrian in absentia on mercenarism counts, the Moscow prosecution service said in a statement on Wednesday.
"The court sentenced Lugo Jimenez to 24-year incarceration, including the first five years to be served in jail and the rest in a high-security penitentiary," the statement said.
The trial was held in the absence of the defendant. A warrant for his arrest was issued in absentia and he was put on the wanted list.
He was found guilty of fighting in an armed conflict as a mercenary, illegally crossing the Russian border, smuggling firearms and ammunition, committing a terrorist attack, and being in illegal possession of weapons.
"It was found that, in September 2024, Lugo Jimenez and two unidentified persons, the criminal case against whom was separated into a different proceeding, pursued mercenary goals, illegally crossed the state border of the Russian Federation, infiltrated the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, and smuggled firearms - an unidentified AK-74 Kalashnikov rifle and an unidentified FN SCAR assault rifle with ammunition - across the customs border," the statement said.
He received regular payments of at least $8,000 or no less than 730,000 rubles, up until April 2025, it said.