Kherson woman sentenced for interviewing propagandists about friendship of peoples

The Kherson Court of Appeal overturned the decision of the court of first instance and sentenced the local resident to actual imprisonment. The citizen was found guilty of justifying and denying Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine.

This was reported by Court Reporter with reference to the verdict of March 4.

The case concerns the events of September 24, 2022. While in the occupied Kherson, the woman gave an interview to the propaganda resource "Main in Kherson and the region". In the video, she denied the fact of occupation and claimed that Ukraine was under the protection of a great Orthodox state, with which she linked the future of the region. She interpreted the actions of the Russian troops not as an attack, but as a struggle against the oligarchs, speaking of one people.

The woman did not admit her guilt in court. She tried to convince the panel that she had not seen the video camera, and her words about one nation referred to the Soviet Union and nostalgia for Kherson's industrial past. However, the appellate court upheld the prosecutor's position, who insisted that such a punishment did not correspond to the gravity of the crime. The court took into account that the defendant was unrepentant and deliberately broadcast the enemy's narratives at a critical time for the city. The new sentence with a real prison term has already entered into force.

Also, on February 25, the Kherson City Court sentenced a former media representative, Yevhen Bely, to death. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison with full confiscation of property for collaborating with the occupiers.

The investigation proved that the convict not only acted as an editor, but built a whole system of manipulations on the basis of the seized Kherson printing house. His activities began with his appointment as editor-in-chief of the Naddnepryanska Pravda newspaper, but later the scope of his treason expanded to managing a joint editorial office that published numerous clones of well-known regional publications.

Катерина Глушко