Head of occupation police in Kherson faces life in prison for torturing residents

<b>Sergei Sinitsyn</b> (call sign 'Sabir'), a Russian FSB officer, was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia for war crimes committed during the occupation of Kherson.

This was reported by the Security Service of Ukraine.

The investigation established that in March 2022, Sinitsyn arrived in Kherson as part of the 'temporary task force No. 8' to organize mass repressions against members of the Ukrainian resistance movement. He coordinated the 'Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs' created by the occupiers, personally approved personnel appointments and led raids on the homes of local residents.

During these raids, people were kidnapped and taken to torture chambers set up in the premises of the local Ministry of Internal Affairs. There, the victims were beaten, tortured with electric shocks, mock executions, and their families were threatened.

In addition, Sinitsyn tried to recruit former officials and law enforcement officers to his own agent networks. Based on the evidence collected, the court found him guilty under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: encroachment on territorial integrity and war crimes. The SBU continues to work to bring the offender to justice.

Law enforcers served a notice of suspicion to the commander of the Akhmat detachment of the Russian Guard, who tortured civilians and extorted money during the occupation of Kherson. Together with his accomplices, he held people by force and also took away property from local entrepreneurs.

According to the investigation, in 2022, he participated in the occupation of part of the Kherson region: he deployed equipment, raided private homes, carried out illegal detentions, used force and took people's property. In November of the same year, the suspect and his accomplices broke into the yard of local entrepreneurs in Kherson. Threatening a woman and her son, he demanded to know where the head of the family was. When he did not receive an answer, he took the boy by force, beat him in the car and continued torturing him in front of his mother.

Катерина Глушко