Residents of Kherson region were sentenced to 10 years in prison for helping Russians hold a pseudo-referendum

Three residents of Kherson region who helped Russians to hold an illegal referendum were sentenced to ten years in prison with the deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to the electoral process for fifteen years.

This was reported by Intent with reference to the court verdict.

According to the investigation, in September 2022, residents of Kherson agreed to assume the powers of the chairman, deputy chairman and secretary of the DCD №305, illegally created by the occupation authorities of the Kherson region. They voluntarily participated in the organization and holding of an illegal referendum on the temporarily occupied territory of Kherson on the secession of Kherson region from Ukraine and its accession to the Russian Federation as a subject of the Russian Federation.

In court, one of the witnesses said that he saw the suspects giving instructions to other members of the election commission, deciding who would go where on the day of the pseudo-referendum for door-to-door voting. In his opinion, they controlled the entire process related to the referendum.

He also said that at the time of the referendum, the Russian military was present at the polling station, checking everyone who came to the school with metal detectors. Thus, two days before the referendum, voting booths and ballot boxes were brought to the school, where the polling station was set up. The process of installing the booths was supervised by the defendants.

According to another witness, who worked as a security guard at the school where the polling station was set up, one day he came on duty and was opened by the military, and then one of the accused came out and allowed him to go inside, while he went to the basement where the military were.

And another witness said that at the end of September 2022, when she came to work, she realized that preparations for the referendum were underway, and the accused were actively involved

The verdict itself does not name the defendants, but Intent has learned that they are Yulia Utkina, Oleksandr Chernikov and Maksym Hlynianyi.

Earlier it was reported that two residents of the region who participated in the preparation and holding of the pseudo-referendum in Kherson region are suspected.

Олеся Ланцман