OSCE official jailed for ‘spying’ in Russian-held Ukraine
Al Jazeera
European security group slams sentencing of Vadym Golda for ‘reconnaissance activities’ used to direct missile strikes.
A Russian-installed court in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region has jailed an official from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring mission for “espionage”.
The Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic sentenced Vadym Golda to 14 years in a penal colony on charges of gathering intelligence on industrial sites that was used to direct missile strikes in the region, said Russia’s prosecutor general on Friday, posting on Telegram.
Russian prosecutors said the strikes that Golda had allegedly facilitated through “reconnaissance activities” caused damage amounting to almost 100 million roubles ($1.1m).
The Vienna-based OSCE condemned the verdict as a “grave violation of participating States’ commitments under international law”, calling for the immediate release of the 56-year-old and two other jailed officials from the organisation.
Golda, Maxim Petrov and Dmytro Shabanov have been in detention in Russian-controlled Ukraine since 2022, the latter two sentenced to 13 years in prison for alleged treason after closed-door trials in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.
