Occupants extend Crimean woman's sentence for cooperation with guerrillas

The occupation "Sevastopol City Court" decided to increase the term of imprisonment of Ksenia Svetlishina, a member ofthe "Yellow Ribbon" movement, adding eight years to her previous sentence.

This was reported by Krym.Realii.

This decision was part of a joint campaign by the Russian authorities to revise the initially "soft" article on "cooperation with a foreign state" to a more serious one - "high treason". Thus, the total sentence for the activist convicted of pro-Ukrainian activities amounted to 13 years and 3 months in prison.

Russian judge Danil Zemlyukov, whom they call "imported from the swamps of Altai," "corrected the mistake" and "added" an additional 8 years to the sentence. Human rights activists emphasize that the proof of Svetlishina's guilt raises serious doubts: all court hearings were held in closed session, and information about the case is not even properly published on the court's website.

It is worth noting that in September last year, Svetlishina was already imprisoned for 5 years and 3 months. However, nine months later, the former chairman of the Council of Judges of the Russian Federation , Alexander Chervotkin, initiated a review of the case during the cassation hearing. He believed that the sentence was not severe enough and sent her back to the occupied Sevastopol to find signs of a more serious crime, which led to the actual doubling of the term.

Earlier, another case of concealment of crimes by Russian security forces and collaborators was recorded in the temporarily occupied part of Kherson region. Unfinished criminal proceedings, in particular those related to theft, disappeared from the premises of the so-called 'Holoprystan court'.

The disappearance of the archives coincided with the staff rotation. This week, a new judge appeared in court, brought from the Rostov region of Russia. She cynically stated that there were no cases, effectively canceling the pending proceedings.

Activists emphasize that such'disappearances' are a systematic step of the occupation administration aimed at concealing the crimes of both the military and local collaborators. The situation is part of a wider reformatting of the judicial system in Kherson region, where the occupiers are merging or liquidating courts due to a lack of staff and the inability to ensure the normal functioning of these occupation courts.

Катерина Глушко