The trial of an OSCE employee accused of “treason” by the separatists has begun in the so-called “LPR”
The OSCE failed to evacuate its Ukrainian employees
What happened? The trial of an OSCE employee began on Thursday in eastern Ukraine. According to local authorities, he was accused by pro-russian separatists in Luhansk Oblast of “treason” for allegedly providing “confidential information” to foreign intelligence services.
Source. novosti.dn.ua.
Details. “The Supreme Court of the Luhansk People's Republic has begun consideration of a criminal case against a resident of the LPR, who works at the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), detained in April on suspicion of treason,” states the website of the separatist Ministry of State Security.
The press release is accompanied by a 15-second video covering the defendant in handcuffs, with his head shaved, being led by police into a metal cage in court.
According to the press release, “the investigation established that Dmytro Shabanov, as a security assistant at the forward patrol base in Stakhanov, provided “confidential information to representatives of foreign special services.”
In April, the so-called Ministry of State Security of the “LPR” announced the arrest of two members of the OSCE mission in the region for “treason”. One of them, Mykhailo Petrov, allegedly confessed to cooperation with the special services. The second, according to the press release published on Thursday, is Shabanov.
On Thursday, the OSCE “unreservedly” condemned the charges against the two staff members, calling the “so-called court proceedings completely unacceptable.”
“They were unjustifiably detained on the basis of faked charges,” the organisation said in a statement, calling for their immediate release.
Background. The OSCE SMM suspended its work in Ukraine after the beginning of the full-scale war on February 24, which has been waged by russia against Ukraine.
The illegal armed formation of the “DPR” opened “criminal cases” against several OSCE employees, who allegedly provided information about the “troops” and “state institutions of the DPR” to Ukraine. On April 8, it became known that the “DPR” detained an employee of the OSCE mission, a local resident, charging him of “contradiction” of the mission's mandate.
The following day, the “DPR” recognised the activity of the OSCE SMM to be “illegal” and obliged its representatives to leave the territory by the end of April.
Politico found out that the OSCE failed to evacuate its employees among the citizens of Ukraine. According to media reports, at least six local OSCE employees were detained in the russian-occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
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