Date of arrest: 12.08.2017
Charges: Illegal acquisition, storage, transportation, and carrying of firearms and ammunition, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy
Court verdict: 8 years in prison.
Waiting for him: wife, child
“In 2015, he wanted to go to the war, he wanted to defend his country. But he had contraindication asthma, so no military commissariat or enlistment office would accept him. Then he volunteered,” - says his wife Iryna. “He is a very generous man: in severe frosts in the trenches, he would still give his gloves to one of the guys.”
“My mother-in-law called me and said that Hena had been detained in the Crimea. Then the media began to discover the articles he was accused of, the actions he was accused of and what happened there in general. There was no connection to my husband”, - Iryna explains. - “Then, when he was able to call us, he said that he had been severely beaten, threatened with being killed if he did not cooperate and do what the Russian FSB said. He was threatened verbally, a pistol was put to his head, he was electrocuted, his hat was burned on his head, and he was thrown into solitary confinement. All this was done to intimidate him into taking responsibility for the charges that the investigating authorities charged him with.”
Hennadii Lymeshko was charged with “illegal acquisition, transportation and storage of explosives and ammunition.”
The occupational court sentenced him to eight years imprisonment, reducing the term by six months because of his underage daughter.
Hennadii Lymeshko is currently serving his sentence in the maximum security prison #6 in the village of Dydymkino in the Stavropol area.
“As for food and living conditions, they are awful,” says Iryna Lymeshko. “My husband has developed chronic skin problems for a year and a half now: he has rashes and wounds. There are also problems with joints and teeth. The medical service does not provide much help. It is forbidden to send them medicines.”
“By detaining ordinary people, Russia is trying to present Ukraine as the aggressor, suggesting that Ukrainians are going to Russia to carry out sabotage. A brother, a daughter, a son or a husband, - anyone can find themselves in such a situation. They can humiliate, beat, torture and do anything to these people to make one confess to something they did not do. We want an exchange, and we ask the public and the media to help us with that. We want our men to return home alive and well,” Iryna Lymeshko concludes.
