Resident of Bolhrad gets probation for transportation of 18 border violators

Bolhrad District Court in Odesa region found a local resident guilty of violating the procedure for entering and leaving the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.

As stated in the court' s verdict, he was also found guilty of unauthorized actions with information processed in electronic computers, automated systems, computer networks or stored on the carriers of such information, committed by a person who has the right to access it.

The man was sentenced to five years in prison, but released from serving the main sentence imposed on him by this verdict if he does not commit a new crime within three years of probation and fulfills the duties imposed on him:

• periodically report for registration to the authorized probation body,
• notify the authorized probation body of any change of place of residence, work or study;
• not to travel outside Ukraine without the consent of the authorized probation authority.

The man, who was an entrepreneur and had his own business organizing passenger transportation abroad, decided to earn extra money using the Shlyakh system. He looked for people willing to travel abroad and registered them in the system as backup drivers, and after crossing the border, he left them there and returned back.

In this way, from the fall of 2022 to the end of 2023, he smuggled 18 men through the Reni and Orlivka checkpoints.

In September, law enforcement officers detained the director of a company in Odesa region, who was suspected of falsifying data in the Shlyakh system. The director of the company helped men of mobilization age to go abroad in exchange for a monetary reward. He employed them as drivers in his company. Later, he entered information about the new employees into the information system. This provided them with legal grounds to cross the border freely.

In May, during a live broadcast on Intent.Insight, lawyer and human rights activist Andriy Leshchenko explained that the unfair use of the Shlyakh system is not recognized as an offense under current Ukrainian law.

In March, the Center for Public Investigations learned that Oleksandr Ivanitskyi, a deputy of the Odesa City Council from the mayor's party "Trust the Deeds," was the first Odesa politician since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia to receive permission to travel abroad using the "Shlyakh" system.

Кирило Бойко