Sentence against former President Yanukovych enters into force – PGO
The Kyiv Court of Appeal rejected the appeals of the defense team for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and upheld the verdict of the Podilsky District Court of Kyiv, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine reported.
"The court's verdict against the fourth president of Ukraine and former deputy head of the State Guard of Ukraine – head of the Security Service of the President of Ukraine has entered into force. The Kyiv Court of Appeals rejected the defense's appeals and upheld the verdict of the Podilsky District Court of Kyiv. According to the court's verdict, the former president of Ukraine was sentenced to 15 years in prison for organizing the illegal transfer of persons across the state border of Ukraine and inciting desertion," the department said in a Telegram post on Tuesday.
It is noted that Yanukovych was sentenced for a combination of crimes committed, including treason and aiding the Russian Federation in waging an aggressive war against Ukraine, for which he was sentenced to 13 years in prison by the Obolonsky District Court of Kyiv on January 24, 2019.
The former deputy head of the Ukrainian State Security Administration was sentenced to 10 years in prison for organizing the illegal transfer of persons across the Ukrainian state border and desertion.
Prosecutors in court proved that on February 23, 2014, the former president of Ukraine, acting in collusion with the former head of the Presidential Security Service and with the assistance of representatives of the Russian Federation, illegally crossed the state border of Ukraine by air and organized the transfer of at least 20 people from his inner circle and military personnel of the State Security Service.
The flight took place outside the state border checkpoints for air traffic. The convicts departed on three Russian military helicopters, piloted by a Russian Armed Forces pilot, from the outskirts of the village of Urzuf in the Mangush district of Donetsk region to a military airfield in Yeysk, Russia. The route then continued through Anapa, and then on a military transport aircraft provided by the Russian Armed Forces to the Hvardeyske military airfield in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
Then the former president decided to permanently leave Ukraine with the assistance of the Russian Armed Forces. While stationed at a Russian Black Sea Fleet base near Kozacha Bay in the city of Sevastopol, he incited Ukrainian security personnel, who were providing his personal security, to desert and flee to Russia. As a result, some of the security personnel left Sevastopol by sea for Russia with him and never returned to military service.
The fugitive president's route through Ukraine and the Russian Federation was completely controlled and accompanied by Federal Security Service officers and military personnel from the Russian Federation's Southern Military District, and was coordinated directly with the President of the Russian Federation.
