Mr. Ihor Protokovylo and Mr. Oleh Kovalenko, citizens of Ukraine, were sentenced to 12 years in custody for alleged “espionage”.
These judgments were passed by the occupational “Kherson Regional Court” on November 25 and 26, 2024.
According to the occupiers, Ihor Protokovylo, a 35-year-old citizen of Ukraine and a member of Novokhakhovka City Council, abducted in April 2022, was found guilty under RF CC Article 276 (espionage). The “investigation” was carried out by the Crimean FSB. It states that in April 2022 Mr. Protokovylo, using his mobile, allegedly informed a SBU officer about dispositioning of Russian military units.
Ihor was sentenced to 12 years in the maximum-security regime penal colony.
In addition, the “Kherson Regional Court’ passed a sentence in the criminal case of Mr. Oleh Kovalenko, a 33-year-old citizen of Ukraine, who was also found guilty under RF CC Article 276 (espionage).
The occupiers claim that from March to August 2022, Oleh, “being in the territory of the Kherson region, voluntarily collected data on the deployment locations of military equipment and personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. He transmitted the received information to representatives of Ukrainian military formations through an Internet messenger.”
Oleh was also sentenced to 12 years in the maximum-security regime penal colony.
To sentence abducted local residents, 16 dedicated “courts” are known to have been established in the occupied territory of the Kherson Region, according to Edict of Russian President no 88-FZ of 3 April 2023, to persecute Ukrainians in the occupied territories. 8 dedicated “courts” were established in the occupied territory of the Zaporizhzhia Region.
As reported by the CHRG, at least 40 citizens of Ukraine are incarcerated under the Crimean “cases of Ukrainian commandos and spies” including the people detained in Crimea: Volodymyr Dudka, Oleksii Bessarabov, Dmytro Shtyblikov, Hennadii Limeshko, Leonid Parkhomenko, Kostiantyn Davydenko, Dmytro Dolhopolov, Anna Sukhonosova, Yunus Masharipov, Ivan Yatskin, Halyna Dovhopola, Vladyslav Yesypenko, Yevhen Petrushyn, Stanislav Stetsenko (Khudolei), Kyrylo Barannyk, Serhii Voynarovskyi , Viktor Podvalnyi, Vitalii Talavira, Denys Petranov, Ihor Kupych, Oleksandr Lytvynenko, Serhii Kryvoshein, Kostiantyn Yevmenenko, Ihor Zorin, Mykhailo Chupil, Mykola Onuk, Volodymyr Anan’iev and others.
This list includes at least 11 persons abducted in the Zaporizhzhia or Kherson Regions after February 24, 2022: Artem Baranov, Oleksandr Novatskyi, Vitalii Rastorhuiev, Volodymyr Kryvtsun, Oleksandr Zarivnyi, Hennadii Lasinskyi, Serhii Tsyhipa, Mykola Petrovskyi, Serhii Kotov, Yaroslav Zhuk, Igor Protokovylo.
In such cases, while detaining, the Russian FSB accuses the Crimeans of “preparing acts of sabotage, storing weapons, and espionage.” In these cases, unlawful methods of investigating and the use of torture to obtain confessions, violation of the presumption of innocence, dissemination of “confession” videos by the Russian FSB through the Russian media have been recorded.
