Former head of Kherson colony deports prisoners to Russia

The Central District Court of Mykolaiv has found the former head of the Northern Correctional Colony (No. 90) Yevhen Sobolev. The collaborator, who headed the occupation's 'penitentiary department', was sentenced for violating the laws and customs of war, namely the forced deportation of convicts.

This was reported by Court Reporter with reference to the verdict of January 26.

The investigation established that at the end of May 2022, Sobolev organized the seizure of the Snihurivska correctional colony by a group of 60 Russian military personnel. Under the guise of 'evacuation' from the front line, the occupiers forcibly took 97 convicts, although the staff of the institution assured the court that the colony was provided with water and food, and there was no need to leave.

While Russian propaganda was filming stories about the rescue, the deportees were being transported in terrible conditions, subjected to brutal beatings and deliberately placed in cells with people with open tuberculosis. The deportees continued their journey through the Krasnodar Territory and Mordovia. Witnesses talk about the cynicism of the Russian system: prisoners who had already served their sentences in Russia were fined for "illegal border crossing" at the exit from the colonies.

So far, only 18 people out of almost a hundred deportees have managed to return to Ukraine. Despite the fact that Sobolev was sentenced to 12 years under the article on deportation, by absorbing the punishments for previous crimes - treason and collaboration - he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The former law enforcement officer was also sentenced to prison for collaborating with the occupiers and organizing the illegal deportation of Ukrainians from the Kherson region. The sentence was passed in absentia, and the punishment will begin after his arrest.

The former deputy head and head of the department of Holoprystan Correctional Colony No. 7 was sentenced to imprisonment for organizing the forced transfer and deportation of Ukrainian citizens from Kherson region.

Катерина Глушко