Odesa court sends Kherson resident to prison for working for occupiers in colony

Khadzhybeyskyi District Court of Odesa found a resident of Kherson guilty of collaboration and sentenced him to 12 years in prison with a ban on holding positions in state authorities, local governments and public service providers for the same period, and confiscation of all property.

According to the court' s verdict, the man had been working as a public transport driver in Kherson for 12 years, but in 2022, when the city was occupied by Russians, he was unable to find the same job.

He went to the Employment Center organized by the occupiers and was offered a job in a penal colony. In prison, the occupiers assigned him household chores: mowing the grass and whitewashing the curbs.

The man said that he worked in the colony for three months and then he was allegedly demanded to get a Russian passport. He did not want to and first went on sick leave, and then did not go to work anymore and only came to pick up his workbook.

Instead, two witnesses from among the colony's employees told the court that the defendant was fired from there for drinking. In the workbook of the accused there is a record of the Russian "Department of the Penitentiary Service in the Kherson region" that he served for 3 months and 22 days and was officially dismissed and hired as a bus driver at the Kherson Municipal Transport Service.

At the court hearing, the man did not admit his guilt and said that he, like other residents of Kherson, became a hostage to the situation due to his difficult financial situation and sick close relatives. He insisted that he was forced to work for the occupiers in order to somehow feed his family.

However, the judges passed the sentence taking into account that the man went to work in the prison for the occupiers voluntarily. At the same time, it is not decisive whether the accused's work was of a narrowly law enforcement or law enforcement nature, if he voluntarily held a position in the structure of such a body and performed work aimed at ensuring its activities.

Кирило Бойко