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Russian Soldiers Who Tortured American Pro-Kremlin Fighter Russell Bentley to Death Get 12 Years
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A garrison military court in Russian-occupied Donetsk has sentenced four Russian servicemen to prison terms of up to 12 years for torturing and killing American citizen Russell Bentley in April 2024, according to Meduza on December 8.
The outlet reported that the Southern District Military Court found four servicemen guilty of abuse of power with violence, causing the victim’s death.
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According to the version of events outlined by investigators and cited by Meduza, on April 8, 2024, russian servicemen saw Bentley as he was preparing to film the aftermath of a missile strike in Donetsk, demanded his documents and informed their command that they had “identified a saboteur,” then placed a bag over his head and put him in a vehicle.
Meduza wrote that the Russian soldiers then beat and tortured Bentley in an attempt to force him to confess to links with reconnaissance and sabotage groups, causing his death, after which they placed his body in a car trunk and blew up the vehicle, while returning the next day and burned Bentley’s remains.
Meduza recalled that Bentley, a Texas native, joined Russia-backed forces in eastern Ukraine in 2014, fought in the Vostok battalion until 2017.
Later, he worked with the Russian state media project Sputnik, which is part of the Rossiya Segodnya media group. He also obtained Russian citizenship and married a local woman in Donetsk.
Earlier reports stated that Russia’s Investigative Committee concluded Bentley was tortured to death by four Russian servicemen in occupied Donetsk. The American-born pro-Kremlin fighter had joined Russian-backed forces and later disappeared.
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