In Russian-occupied Crimea, RFE/RL Journalist Yesypenko is sentenced to six years in prison
Vladyslav Yesypenko's wife, Kateryna, stands with a poster in his support near the office of the Ukrainian president in July.
Vladyslav Yesypenko, a freelance journalist for RFE/RL based in Crimea, was sentenced to six years in prison by a Russia-imposed court for alleged possession and transportation of explosives-a charge he has adamantly denied.
After a closed-door trial, the Simferopol City Court handed down the verdict and sentence on February 16.
The prosecutor asked the court to sentence the journalist to 11 years in prison.
In March 2021, Yesypenko was detained in Crimea on suspicion of collecting information for Ukrainian intelligence. Yesypenko is a dual Russian-Ukrainian citizen who contributes to RFE/RL's Crimea.Realities.
During the five years prior to his arrest, he reported on the social and environmental situation in Crimea.
Yezypenko testified at a court hearing on February 15 that authorities are trying to discredit freelancer journalists for trying to report the truth about what is really happening in Crimea.
Ukraine's Ombudswoman, Lyudmyla Denisova, has condemned the court's ruling and called Yesypenko's case fabricated.
As Denisova wrote on Telegram, "all of the accusations and charges against the Ukrainian citizen [Yesypenko] are fabricated and politically motivated." Denisova demanded Yesypenko's immediate release.
Denisova also called on the international community to pay attention to the “systemic violation of the rights of Ukrainian citizens on politically motivated charges by the aggressor country.”
As RFE/RL President Jamie Fly described on February 15, Yesypenko was "detained without reason, brutally tortured into a 'confession' for television, and subjected to an eight-month sham trial."
"Vladyslav should be released immediately and allowed to rejoin his wife and daughter, who have been waiting for him to come home since last March,” he added.
A number of organizations that support press freedom, including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, as well as Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and the U.S. State Department, have called for Yesypenko's immediate release.
Moscow annexed Crimea in early 2014 and then backed pro-Russian separatists in the east of Ukraine, where 13,200 people have been killed in a conflict that continues to this day.
*This article contains information sourced from VOA.
