MOSCOW, August 25 (RAPSI) – The North Caucasus District Military Court on Tuesday sentenced Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov to 20 years in prison for organizing a terrorist group in Crimea, RIA Novosti reported from the courtroom.

Another defendant in the case, Alexander Kolchenko, received ten years in prison.

The state prosecutor earlier requested 23 years in a high security prison for Sentsov  and 12 years in prison and 18 months of parole for Kolchenko.

Investigators found that Sentsov started a terrorist group in Crimea, a branch of the Right Sector movement that is banned in Russia. He was allegedly promoting Crimea’s secession from Russia.

The Investigative Committee claims that between April and May 2014, the defendants set Crimean NGO, Russian Community, offices on fire in Simferopol and were charged with doing the same at the local United Russia office. The defendants were also charged with attempting to blowup a statue of Lenin in Simferopol on May 9, 2014.

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, Russia’s Federal Security Service prevented the terrorist group from committing other alleged terrorist activity in May 2014. Two other defendants in this case, Alexei Chirny and Gennady Afanasyev, have been sentenced to seven years each in prison. Now Sentsov and Alexander Kolchenko are on trial.

Sentsov denied all charges against him. He said he had never been a member of the Right Sector and that the investigators had no evidence against him.