American got 4.5 years in jail for kicking a cop twice

A court in Voronezh sentenced US citizen Robert Gilman to 4.5 years in prison for using violence against a police officer. Gilman considers the case political. The defense promises to appeal the sentence and initiate an exchange process with the United States.

According to the investigation, in January 2022 Gilman behaved aggressively in the train “Sukhum-Moscow”. In Voronezh, he was taken off the train and taken to the police station, where he kicked a policeman “at least twice in the area of the left shin”. According to witnesses, Gilman was very drunk. It also turned out that he violated the term of his stay in Russia: his visa expired at the end of 2021.

The prosecutor’s office requested 4.5 years in prison for Gilman – out of the maximum five under the article imputed to him. Gilman stated that the punishment was too serious and that he was “a victim of political repression.” According to him, he asked the policeman for forgiveness and paid him 15 thousand rubles in compensation.

The judge gave Gilman the sentence requested by the prosecutor’s office. Among other things, she took into account his negative characteristic from the pre-trial detention center where Gilman was kept. According to the Kommersant newspaper, Gilman had a fight with the former vice-mayor of Voronezh in the detention center when the latter “reacted very expressively” to his sentence in the bribery case.

Gilman’s lawyer stated that the defense would appeal the verdict, as well as appeal to the U.S. authorities to initiate an exchange process and return Gilman home. At the trial, Gilman said in Russian that he wanted to obtain citizenship and stay in Russia.