Former MP from Kherson, sentenced to 14 years, appeals

Serhiy Ostapenko, a 32-year-old deputy of the Korabelnyi District Council in Kherson from the banned OPFL party and former employee of the Kherson City Council, was found guilty of collaboration by the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv. Ostapenko filed an appeal against the guilty verdict.

This was reported by the Center for Investigative Journalism with reference to the court verdict and data from the court registry.

According to the CJR, the court found that Ostapenko, during the temporary occupation of his city on July 6, 2022, voluntarily took the position of acting operative of the department for combating economic crimes of the occupation Dnipro District Police Department in Kherson. On August 19, 2022, he resigned of his own free will and got a job as a lawyer at the illegally created Kherson Grain Company, which exported Ukrainian grain to Russia. After Kherson was liberated from the Russian invaders on November 13, 2022, Ostapenko surrendered to Ukrainian law enforcement.

He did not admit his guilt in court. Ostapenko said that he worked as a state registrar at the Department of State Registration of Real Rights and Their Encumbrances of the Kherson City Council and remained under occupation. In the first half of March 2022, FSB officers allegedly tried to contact him and offered to distribute Russian "humanitarian aid." Later, he was offered a job as a police officer and told that if he did not agree, "they could have problems." According to Ostapenko's testimony in court, he allegedly did not write any applications for employment, but he constantly went to work and received a salary in rubles in cash from the cashier.

Thecourt was critical of the defendant's story, noting that he was confused in his testimony and could not explain why he believed that the men he allegedly did not know were representatives of the Russian Federal Security Service.

Serhiy Ostapenko's guilt was confirmed in court by witnesses. According to the financial director of the representative office of Epicenter LLC in Kherson, Ostapenko called him in July 2022 and introduced himself as a Russian police officer, insisting on a meeting with him. The witness offered to meet him in Kyiv, to which Ostapenko replied that the Russians would soon capture Odesa.

The court found the man guilty of collaboration and sentenced him to 14 years in prison with confiscation of property, except for his home. The prosecutor requested 13 years in prison with confiscation of property. The sentence will be counted from the date of his arrest and detention.

From the court registry, the CPJ found that Ostapenko had already filed an appeal against the court's guilty verdict.