A citizen of Ukraine who helped the occupiers in the persecution of Crimeans is behind bars

A citizen of Ukraine who assisted the aggressor state in the persecution of Crimeans was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

This was reported by the press service of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol.

The report says that under the public prosecution of the autonomy's prosecutor's office, a citizen of Ukraine who assisted the occupation law enforcement officers in conducting systematic illegal searches and detentions of Crimeans was sentenced to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property. He was found guilty of high treason (Part 1 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Photo: Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol

The convict is a former law enforcement officer who served as Deputy Head of the Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the AR of Crimea in 2005-2011, and since 2012 he has worked in the transport department of the State Enterprise Chornomornaftogaz. After the occupation of the peninsula, he not only continued to work at the occupied enterprise as the "head of the department for organizing the work of motor vehicles", but in June 2019 was promoted to the head of the transport department. Prosecutors in court proved that the convict, using his official position, from March 2019 to August 2020, systematically provided employees of the "FSB Office in the Republic of Crimea" with vehicles to conduct illegal searches of Ukrainian citizens and further convoy detainees. As an example, on March 27-28, 2019, the convict provided occupation law enforcement officers with vehicles to conduct 15 simultaneous illegal searches in the city of Simferopol in the homes of Crimean Tatars who were persecuted for allegedly participating in the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization. Subsequently, they were illegally detained and taken to the premises of the FSB office in the Republic of Crimea and the pre-trial detention center in Simferopol. Simferopol. Knowing for certain that the vehicles he provided would be used by the Russian special services during the persecution of Ukrainians in Crimea, the convict assisted a foreign state and its representatives in conducting subversive activities against Ukraine.

On November 7, 2020, the said citizen was detained at the Kalanchak checkpoint while trying to leave for the temporarily occupied territory of the Crimean peninsula. He was waiting for the court verdict to be announced in custody.

The pre-trial investigation was conducted by the SBU investigators in the AR of Crimea.

Володимир Шкаєв