Extortionists demanded UAH 5 million from family of fallen Ukrainian soldier: SSU detains racketeers in Cherkasy. PHOTOS
Law enforcers in Cherkasy detained a group of racketeers who extorted UAH 5 million from the family of a fallen Ukrainian soldier.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to the SSU press service.
For example, the National Police and the Security Service detained a criminal group that was trying to keep the residents of Cherkasy in fear. Among the victims are relatives of the fallen Ukrainian defenders.
"The fact of extortion of UAH 5 million from the family of an Armed Forces serviceman killed at the front was documented. When the gang members found out that the soldier's wife and his 20-year-old son had received financial assistance from the state, they immediately went to them to collect their "percentage".
To intimidate the victims, the perpetrators harassed the young man and threatened to make him disabled, and put psychological pressure on his mother through phone calls. In addition to money, the racketeers demanded that the victims falsely recognise one of them as the illegitimate son of the deceased defender," the statement said.
The criminals wanted to create their own scheme to evade mobilisation and then go abroad with the money they had been forced to pay.
Two members of the criminal group were detained red-handed when they were receiving part of the money. The detainees are local criminals who specialised in extorting non-existent debts from residents of the regional centre.
They have been served a notice of suspicion under Part 4 of Article 189 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (extortion that caused property damage on an especially large scale, committed under martial law).
They face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.
