Date of arrest: 17.12.2019
Charges: found guilty of illegal acquisition and storage of ammunition and explosives, as well as smuggling of explosives
Court verdict: 3 years and 8 months of a general regime colony
Waiting for him: mother, sister, wife and little son.
According to his sister Tetiana, Denys had no enemies; he was a non-confrontational person and never quarreled with anyone.
Denis was detained on December 17, 2019. He went to work, and after that, his wife Olha could not reach him.
That same evening, Olha called the police and wrote a statement about Denys` disappearance. On December 19, lawyers found the man in the Simferopol pre-trial detention centre.
On December 20, in the Kyiv district court of Simferopol, Denys was given pre-trial restrictions in the form of detention in a pre-trial detention centre for two months. Denys's mother and wife were allowed a 20-minute meeting with him before the hearing. "He looked very wretched as he told them to leave the Crimea," says Tetiana.
Denys's mother listened to his advice: she and her husband immediately left the peninsula.
On April 6, 2020, the Armenian City Court in Crimea found Denys guilty of illegal acquisition and storage of ammunition and explosives and smuggling of explosives. He was sentenced to three years and eight months in a general regime penal colony.
"Denys is a very good man, with a keen sense of justice," says Tetiana. "That's why it's tough and painful for me to see such striking injustice happening to him." She sincerely hopes that justice will prevail, and Denys and other Kremlin political prisoners will soon return to their families.
