Russian court sentences Ukrainian woman from Kherson to 10.5 years in prison for spying for the Ukrainian Armed Forces
16 August 2024 14:25
A Russian court in the occupied territory of the Kherson region sentenced Ukrainian citizen Irina Gorobtsova to ten and a half years in a general regime colony on charges of espionage. This was reported by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, reports "Komersant Ukrainian"
According to the investigation, the Kherson resident collected “strategically important data about the units of the Russian Armed Forces in the Kherson region and passed it on to an employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine”. The prosecutor’s office claims that this data could have been used to strike at the locations of the Russian military.
According to Russian Radio Liberty, Iryna Gorobtsova worked for a Ukrainian IT company. During the occupation of Kherson by Russian troops, she delivered food and medicine to local residents and published posts on social media in support of the Ukrainian military. on 13 May 2022, her birthday, she was abducted from her home in Kherson, where she lived with her parents.
The Ukrainian armed forces liberated Kherson in November 2022. However, by this time, Iryna had already been detained for six months in the Simferopol detention centre in annexed Crimea. During this time, she had no contact with her relatives who were looking for her.
A lawyer was not allowed to see Gorobtsova. In 2023, he stated that no criminal cases had been initiated against Irina, meaning that she had been held in a detention centre without any grounds. It became known that a case of espionage had been opened against Gorobtsova only in March 2024. Her lawyer was able to see his client only in court – two years after her abduction and detention.
Kherson was occupied by Russian troops in the first days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but on 11 November 2022, the city was liberated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
