Ukraine: OSCE employee sentenced to thirteen years in prison by pro-Russian separatists
A pro-Russian separatist in the Lugansk region.
REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine on Monday sentenced an employee of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (
OSCE
) to 13 years in prison on charges of “high treason”.
This was reported by Russian agencies.
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"
The judges find Dmitry Chabanov guilty
(...)
and sentence him to serve a 13-year prison sentence
," said the Supreme Court of the
separatist region of Lugansk
, quoted by the Ria-Novosti agency.
Imprisoned since April, Mr. Chabanov was accused by the pro-Russian authorities of having provided “
confidential information
” to foreign intelligence services, including the American CIA.
According to the separatist authorities, Mr Shabanov committed these acts of “high treason” between August 2021 and April 2022 when he worked as an OSCE security assistant at the forward patrol base in Stakhanavoskaya.
" Unequivocal
" condemnation
of the OSCE
In April, the Ministry of State Security in Lugansk said it had arrested Mr Shabanov and another OSCE employee in the region, Mikhail Petrov.
Last week, the OSCE “
unequivocally
” condemned the charges against these two employees, denouncing
“totally unacceptable so-called 'legal proceedings'
”.
"
They are unjustifiably detained on the basis of trumped up charges
," the organization denounced in a statement, calling for their immediate release.
The local OSCE mission, deployed in the conflict zone since 2014 to try to reduce tensions, had left the two separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in the wake of the launch of the Russian offensive in Ukraine last February.
(
with
AFP
)
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