15 years in prison for Viktor Yanukovych: the former leader of Kiev, found guilty of human trafficking and inciting to defect
Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and former deputy head of the Probation Service, Konstantin Kobzar, have been sentenced to 15 and 10 years in prison, respectively, for human trafficking and incitement to defection, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine announced.
Viktor Yanukovych PHOTO: EPA-EFE
The Ukrainian court announced that the verdict in the case of the former President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, and the former deputy head of the Probation Service, Konstantin Kobzar, has become final, according to the Prosecutor General's Office.
The former leader from Kiev was sentenced to 15 years in prison for organizing illegal people-trafficking across the state border of Ukraine and inciting desertion. In parallel, Yanukovych already had a 13-year prison sentence from January 2019 for high treason and complicity in waging an aggressive war against Ukraine, Pravda writes.
According to prosecutors, on February 23, 2014, Yanukovych illegally crossed the state border of Ukraine and organized the transfer of at least 20 people from his close circle and servicemen of the State Protection Department.
The flight was carried out by three Russian military helicopters, piloted by a Russian pilot, from near the village of Urzuf, Mangush district, Donetsk region, to a military airfield in Yeisk, Russian Federation. Later, they arrived in Anapa, from where they were transported by a military plane to the Gvardiyskoye airfield in Crimea.
According to the quoted source, in Sevastopol, Yanukovych would have incited the desertion of the UDO soldiers guarding him. As a result, several state security officers left Sevastopol and traveled to Russia with the former president, never to return to Ukrainian military service.
Viktor Yanukovych served as Ukraine's president from 2010 to 2014, when he was ousted during the Euromaidan protests. The protests broke out after Yanukovych rejected the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, which was meant to bring Kiev closer to the European Union and distance it from Moscow.
