Ex-officer of Kherson correctional colony involved in deportation of Ukrainians is suspected

During the occupation of Kherson, the 38-year-old man worked as the "first deputy" of the illegally created "pre-trial detention center" by the occupiers. In October 2022, the man ensured the forced transfer of more than 1500 convicts to the temporarily occupied left bank of Kherson region.

According to Ihor Demianiuk, Head of the Department for Investigation of Crimes Committed in the Context of Armed Conflict of the Kherson Police Investigation Department, after the occupation of Kherson region in the spring of 2022, representatives of the aggressor country created a "department of the execution service for the Kherson region" in May. The functions of the illegally created institution included the execution of criminal sentences in the interests of the Russian occupation administration.

Soon after, the occupiers created the so-called "pre-trial detention center No. 1" in Kherson. In June 2022, a 38-year-old resident of the city, who had worked in the penitentiary service of Ukraine before the full-scale Russian invasion and voluntarily cooperated with the occupation authorities, was appointed to the "position" of the first deputy head of the "detention center". During July-September 2022, the pseudo-management of the "Department of the Penitentiary Service in the Kherson Region" ensured the forced transportation of persons serving sentences in penal colonies located in Dariivka and Snihurivka to Kherson. The prisoners were placed in the 'Northern Correctional Colony' and the so-called 'SIZO No. 1'.

In the second decade of October, the so-called "first deputy of SIZO No. 1", together with other officials of the occupation penitentiary institutions, received an order from the top management to forcibly transfer the convicts to the temporarily occupied left bank of the region to a penitentiary institution located in Stara Zburyivka, Skadovsk district. For this purpose, the occupiers from the TOT of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea sent "special vehicles" to Kherson.

For two weeks, the defendant was at the place of transfer and coordinated the process of forced transfer of convicts. In particular, he personally announced in the cells the lists of persons who had to leave the premises in turn, forced them, threatening them with beatings in case of disobedience, to leave the cells for the yard and controlled the process of loading the convicts into the "special cars". After that, the "first deputy head of SiZO no. 1" accompanied the convoys of "special vehicles" to the penal colony in Hola Prystan. There he also supervised the unloading of the convicts.

In total, the defendant ensured the forced transfer of more than 1,500 convicts. After that, they were deported to penitentiary institutions located in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, as well as to Russia to the Krasnodar Territory, Volgograd and Rostov Regions.

During the liberation of Kherson, the man fled to the left bank with the Russians. His criminal actions were classified as collaboration and treason.

Employees of the Migration Police Department of the regional headquarters also found that the man continued his "service" in occupied Henichesk. There, from December 2022 to November 2023, he supervised the construction of a new "pre-trial detention center" in Shchaslyvtseve. The construction was carried out under duress by displaced convicts. Under the threat of physical violence in case of disobedience, they were forced to perform various types of construction work during the day (carrying stones and rubble for the foundation, digging holes for water supply, collecting sand on the coast for construction, etc.)

The investigators qualified the last criminal actions of the defendant as violations of the laws and customs of war committed by prior conspiracy with other unidentified persons. He has now been served a notice of suspicion of committing a war crime in absentia. The sanction of the article provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of eight to twelve years.

Олеся Ланцман