The Supreme Court of Crimea has sentenced yet another Crimean resident from the Dzhankoy district to imprisonment on charges of treason. According to statements by the occupying prosecutor’s office, the resident, “being opposed to the special military operation, engaged in correspondence on a social media platform with a representative of the Ukrainian security services” and, throughout 2024, allegedly filmed and photographed military aircraft and military transport. He was found guilty of treason and sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment, to be served in a strict-regime penal colony, followed by a further restriction of liberty for one year and six months. It is important to emphasise that the prosecution was led by Pavel Kucheryavenko, Deputy Prosecutor of the Republic of Crimea.

The convicted man’s personal details are not disclosed either in the verdict announcement or on the court’s official website. The only information made public concerns his place of residence in the Dzhankoy district and his age – 42. All five court hearings and the pronouncement of the verdict took place behind closed doors. This is confirmed in the case file on the official website of the Supreme Court of Crimea. Furthermore, information regarding the date and venue of the sentencing hearing was only published on the court’s website several hours after the hearing had concluded. The section of the website containing the schedule of hearings was not functioning on the day before the sentencing hearing or during the hearing itself. All of this had a significant negative impact on the transparency and openness of the trial.

Furthermore, the independence and impartiality of the presiding judge in the trial raise legitimate doubts, as the verdict was handed down by Judge Alla Khinevich, who was sentenced by a Ukrainian court to 14 years’ imprisonment for treason. For this reason, there are serious doubts as to the court’s impartiality towards individuals accused of working for the Ukrainian security services. It is important to note that Khinevich is the most actively involved judge in the Supreme Court of Crimea in terms of the number of cases heard on charges of high treason: 11 verdicts under this article last year alone, and already three since the start of 2026. Previously, Alla Khinevich also played a prominent role in the politically motivated prosecution of the Crimean Tatar politician Lenur Islyamov, whose trial demonstrated a breach of the principle of equality of arms, as the defence was restricted to presenting evidence over the course of just two hearings.

An equally important aspect of the prosecution of an unidentified resident of the Dzhankoy District is the media campaign in Crimean and major Russian media outlets, which showed signs of presenting the verdict in a one-sided manner from the prosecution’s perspective. At least ten articles have been identified in major federal media outlets, the content of which reflects only the prosecution’s position. One publication employed manipulative tactics, such as referring to the ‘Kyiv regime’ and ‘leaking information to Kyiv’, whilst making no mention of the fact that the court’s verdict has not yet become legally binding. The position of the defence and the defendant was not presented in the available publications. The perception of the defendant as guilty was also influenced by his being kept in a cage. The use of cages constitutes a gross violation of standards of justice and is regarded as treatment that degrades human dignity.