You're reading: Sellers of radioactive metal from Chornobyl Exclusion Area sentenced to eight years in prison

Members of a criminal group that sold metal objects containing spent uranium from the Chornobyl Exclusion Area have been sentenced to various terms in prison.

According to the media liaisons department of the prosecutor’s office
in Kyiv, the capital’s Holosiyivsky District Court sentenced eight
members of the criminal group to terms of imprisonment between eight
years and eight-and-a-half years depending on the role of each of the
members of the group. The prosecutor’s office supported the state
prosecution in the case.

“It was discovered that the criminals sold metal objects containing
spent uranium that were delivered from the exclusion zone around
Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. They were arrested by the capital’s
police and employees of the Security Service of Ukraine in Kyiv at the
moment when they were selling the radioactive objects,” reads the
statement.

The criminal case was opened under Part 3 of Article 28 and Part 3 of
Article 265 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illegal use of radioactive
materials by an organized group).