Court clerk judged abducted Ukrainians in Kherson region

A court clerk from Kherson region was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison for participating in a trial against Ukrainians. The occupiers accused the residents of the region of theft, although in fact they were protecting the property of the Pension Fund.

This was reported by the Center for Investigative Journalism.

Halyna Tsyba, 38, a former senior secretary of the Henichesk District Court of Kherson Oblast, joined the pseudo-court created by the Russian occupiers in 2023. She helped the occupation administration persecute Ukrainians and participated in fake hearings against Serhiy Barchuk, deputy head of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Kherson region, and four other people abducted by the Russians.

According to the investigation, until March 2023, she worked as a senior secretary at the Ukrainian Genichesk District Court. In July 2023, she participated in the hearings of a pseudo-court in the so-called criminal case against an employee of the Pension Fund, whom the occupiers accused of stealing property. Later, she was present during the consideration of the extension of the "preventive measure" for two defendants in this fabricated case.

This case concerned five residents of Kherson abducted in July 2022 - Serhii Barchuk, three of his relatives (Oleksii and Artem Barchuk, Lidiia Podozerska) and a family friend, Oleh Samotoi. They were captured because Barchuk, in the line of duty, hid the Pension Fund's computers from the occupiers.

The Nazis regarded this as a "theft" of the property of the Kherson Pension Fund, which did not exist at that time. The men were held captive for almost 13 months, tortured, and then "convicted" and released after paying a ransom of $5,000 each.

During the trial of Tsyba, the court heard testimony from two victims who stated that their "trials" were a sham and the charges were completely fictitious. They plan to file lawsuits against Russia in international courts.

Galina Tsyba was found guilty of collaboration. The court sentenced her in absentia to 15 years in prison with confiscation of all property and a ban on holding any positions in the judicial or law enforcement agencies of Ukraine for the same period.

Recently, another case of concealment of crimes by Russian security forces and collaborators was recorded in the temporarily occupied part of Kherson region: unfinished criminal proceedings, including those related to theft, disappeared from the premises of the so-called Holoprystan court.

Анна Бальчінос