Kherson court charges head of health department with treason

The Kherson City Court of Kherson Region found <b>Svitlana Mezherytska</b>, who, before the full-scale invasion, headed the Health Department of the Kherson City Council and was a deputy of the Kherson Regional Council from the Nash Krai party, guilty of collaboration.

This became known from the relevant verdict on November 17.

The court sentenced her to 7 years in prison with a 12-year ban on holding positions in state and local government and in positions related to the provision of public services.

The prosecution established that no later than the second half of July 2022, Mezherytska took up the position of the so-called 'Head of the Health Care Department of the Department of Social Policy of the Military-Civilian Administration' of the occupation authorities. According to the case file, the woman worked under a pseudonym beginning with the letter 'T'. Documents seized after the de-occupation of the city (including a list of employees, a time sheet, and minutes of a meeting with the occupation governor) confirmed her position in the illegal administration.

At the court hearing, Mezherytska pleaded guilty to part of the charges. She denied that she had immediately accepted the position and claimed that she had communicated with representatives of the occupation authorities no more than five times, with conversations limited to the specifics of the organization of the medical system, and once she helped to find medicines. The woman also reported that she had delivered cash to hospitals on her own to support doctors who refused to receive Russian rubles.

However, the testimony of other employees of the Health Department and doctors refuted her statements. Witnesses confirmed that Mezherytska persuaded them to go to work for the occupation administration and called them herself, introducing herself as the 'head of the health department'. Also, the witness who registered her husband for treatment received a letter of response, the signature on which, according to the expert, was made by Mezherytska herself, although she denied it.

The court did not establish any facts that the accused acted under physical or mental coercion, and Mezherytska did not claim this either.

Катерина Глушко