Separatist militants occupying parts Donetsk Oblast sentenced Ukrainian journalist Stanislav Aseyev to 15 years in a penal colony on charges related to extremism and espionage. Before the verdict, Aseyev was held in captivity for two years.
The ruling, published on Oct. 22, dates back to August. Aseyev was also banned from engaging in journalistic work for 2.5 years.
When Russian-backed separatists took control of his native city of Donetsk, Aseyev began chronicling daily life under the occupation on his blog. He also reported for Ukrainian outlets based in Kyiv, including Dzerkalo Tyzhnya, Ukrainian Week and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
Aseyev disappeared in June 2017. Six weeks later, he was located in separatist captivity. The Russia-backed militants charged him with espionage.
In August 2018, a Russian state-funded television channel aired an interview with Aseyev in which he confessed to espionage.
In June 2018, on the first anniversary of his captivity, RFE/RL published a collection of the journalist’s essays called “In Isolation.” The title was a play on “Izolyatsia,” Ukrainian for “isolation,” the name of the factory-turned-prison where Aseyev was being held.
A range of international organizations have called for Aseyev’s immediate release, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe.
The unrecognized Russia-backed authorities in Donetsk claim that, under the guise of a journalist, Aseyev ran an extremist group and distributed materials that negatively portrayed the separatist authorities and law enforcement. Moreover, Aseyev was convicted of spying for Ukraine’s security service, recruiting locals with pro-Ukrainian views to become informants for Ukrainian intelligence and publicly calling for actions aimed at violating the self-proclaimed, unrecognized government’s “territorial integrity.”
RFE/RL president Jamie Fly called Aseyev’s conviction reprehensible.
“Stas is a journalist and was only trying to raise awareness about the situation in eastern Ukraine. The ruling is an attempt by Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk to silence his powerful, independent voice. Stas should be released immediately,” Fly wrote on Twitter on Oct. 22.
Former Donetsk lawmaker and Aseyev’s friend Yegor Firsov said the conviction was expected and may be a signal of an impending prisoner exchange.
“As a rule, conviction is a condition for the swap. Hopefully, transfer to a penal colony will improve incarceration conditions for Stats. That’s why, as weird as it sounds, conviction is not a bad signal. We are hoping for a prompt (prisoner) exchange!” he wrote on Facebook.
Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners in a large-scale swap on Sept. 7, and the negotiations for a second round are ongoing.
The last prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts took place in December 2017.
