Фото: Генпрокуратура
Belarusian citizen Aliaksei Tomasheu has been sentenced to 14 years in a high-security penal colony on charges of spying for Ukraine. The verdict was handed down in 2024 by a court in Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea, Radio Svaboda writes.
Tomasheu was detained on May 8, 2024, reportedly in Sevastopol. The 45-year-old Belarusian was suspected of passing information to Ukrainian intelligence services about the locations and movements of Russian units, weapons and special equipment, as well as of having an “unloyal attitude toward Russia’s policy”.
“The man was accused of cooperating with Ukrainian intelligence services, namely through the Telegram channel ‘Atesh’, to which, according to the materials of his criminal case, he sent information about the locations and movements of units, weapons, military and special equipment of the Russian armed forces”, said Zarema Bariyeva, a manager at the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, according.
After the sentencing, Tomasheu was assigned compulsory outpatient psychiatric observation and treatment.
According to Bariyeva, assumptions played a key role in the case.
“They decided and ruled that Aliaksei could have passed information, could have caused harm, and a million other ‘could haves’… which is what ultimately led to him being deprived of his freedom”, she said.
Tomasheu is currently serving his sentence in Correctional Colony No. 4 of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service in the Saratov region.