Rostov residents reported torture during their detention in the arson case.

Two defendants in the case of the arson of an officer's wife's car in Rostov-on-Don told the Southern District Military Court about beatings during their detention and interrogations without a lawyer.

21-year-old Oleg Tarantsev and 20-year-old Oleg Sokolov are accused of committing a terrorist act (subsections "a" and "b" of part 2 of article 205 of the Criminal Code) and legalizing criminal income (subsection "a" of part 3 of article 174.1 of the Criminal Code of Russia). The article on terrorism provides for imprisonment from twelve to twenty years. According to the prosecution's version, in January 2025, Sokolov and Tarantsev set fire to the car used by the wife of an officer from the Southern Military District headquarters and received a reward in cryptocurrency for it.

The Rostov residents were detained in different locations on the same day, January 23, 2025. According to Tarantsev, "employees of some structures" took him out of a computer club and put him in a service minibus, where Sokolov was already inside. Tarantsev reported that one of the operatives in balaclavas hit Sokolov three times "in the area of the right eye" and demanded that he apologize on camera, reported "Mediazona" on September 24.

Sokolov, for his part, stated that he did not see what blows the security forces inflicted on Tarantsev. "I saw that after one of the blows, Tarantsev bent over, but I couldn't see more because I was face down on the floor," he said at the court session.

After their detention, the young men were taken to the city police department No. 5 – according to Tarantsev, by that time Sokolov "had a completely swollen right eye." The security forces told Tarantsev that he was still in the status of a witness, "clearly explained that a lawyer was not needed," and began the interrogation.

"I asked to correct some things, but I was made to understand that nothing would be corrected," Tarantsev said. When asked for clarification by the judge, he noted that he meant "testimony about working for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and connections with Ukrainian special services." "I immediately said: that didn't happen, I ask to correct it. I was clearly explained that no one would correct anything," the young man explained.

Lawyer Gyulvart Sogoyan, who came to Sokolov at the police department the day after his detention, told the court that the 18-year-old boy at that time was "depressed" and "scared." In the office, besides Sokolov and the investigator, two silent men were sitting on the couch, and Sokolov explained to her that these were "the operatives who interrogated him all night."

The lawyer did not notice any obvious signs of violence on Sokolov's face, but according to her, he looked very frightened. "What he was told, he just signed and that's it. He no longer saw and heard me, as a lawyer he did not perceive me at that moment," Sogoyan said.

According to her, she went out with Sokolov to the corridor twice, persuading him not to sign the testimony, but the young man did not listen to her. "He did not read in my presence. He said that the protocol was from his words. After the investigator asked: does everything correspond? Sokolov said yes, and we signed. He did not read in my presence, but he signed," she stated.

Sokolov's and Tarantsev's data were entered into the register of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring on the same day, August 22, 2025. Both young men were born in Rostov-on-Don: Sokolov in June 2006, Tarantsev in May 2005. Their case was submitted to the court on April 10, 2026.

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