Rosgvardiya occupier sentenced to 12 years for raping civilian in occupied Kherson. PHOTOS
Rosgvardiya serviceman Roman Popov, implicated in the torture and sexual violence of civilians in Kherson, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison. The verdict was issued in absentia.
Earlier, a journalist from the agency managed to speak with the occupier.
As reported by Censor.NET, Slidstvo.Info learned of the sentence from a post by the Kherson Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the investigation, Popov was in temporarily occupied Kherson from March to October 2022, where, together with other Russian servicemen, he unlawfully held civilians in a seized temporary detention facility. People there were tortured and kept in inhuman conditions.
"In August 2022, the convicted Rosgvardiya serviceman, together with other Russian military personnel, imprisoned a local resident in one of the detention cells. The man was then repeatedly interrogated and subjected to torture and sexual violence," the statement says.
Roman Popov, together with three other Russian servicemen, restrained the man while another Russian soldier committed rape. After the torture, the occupiers demanded 100,000 hryvnias from the Ukrainian man’s wife and released him only after receiving the money.
The Kherson prosecutor’s office said the court found Popov guilty of cruel treatment of civilians (Part 2 of Article 28 and Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and sentenced him in absentia to 12 years in prison.
The outlet identified the occupying soldier who committed the rape
Earlier, "Slidstvo.Info" identified the occupier.
Roman Popov is a resident of the town of Bila Kalytva in the Rostov Oblast. He is a rifleman in the 143rd Operational Assignment Regiment of the 50th Separate Operational Assignment Brigade of the Russian Federal National Guard Service.
Journalists found Roman’s page on VKontakte: there, he has an empty account and a few photographs.
Roman Popov
Among Roman’s saved photos are images featuring Nazi symbols.
In addition, journalists found Roman Popov’s mother’s page on Odnoklassniki. The woman posts photos with her family and her sons. Roman has an older brother, Nikita, who also appears to be serving in the Russian army.
His mother, Svitlana Popova (Feofilova), likes propaganda posts.
Journalists called Roman to find out whether he was involved in committing sexual violence in Kherson. The occupier replied at the time: "That didn’t happen, goodbye," after which he hung up.
