Photo: Pavel Golovkin / AP
Former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych was sentenced to 15 years in prison in the case of illegal trafficking of persons across the state border in February 2014. The sentence was handed down by the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv.
The court found Yanukovych guilty of facilitating the criminal trafficking of a group of people, including the former president himself, from Ukraine to Russia after the bloody events on Maidan. The trial was held in absentia, as Yanukovych is hiding in Russia and refuses to cooperate with Ukrainian justice.
According to the investigation, on the night of 23-24 February 2014, with the assistance of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Yanukovych was taken from the territory of Ukraine to Crimea and then brought to the territory of Russia. Such actions were classified as illegal transportation across the state border by an organised group of persons.
This is not the first verdict against Yanukovych. In 2019, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison for high treason and aiding and abetting the waging of an aggressive war against Ukraine.
The verdict on the new episode is yet another confirmation that justice against the organisers of treason in Ukraine continues, despite the perpetrators’ flight abroad.
