the pensioner received 8 years in the case of preparation for a change of state

In Abakan, the court sentenced 61-year-old Ihor Pokusyn to eight years and one month of strict regime prison, and found him guilty of trying to go over to the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The court qualified it as preparation for a coup. Pokusin’s wife, Elena, told Sibir.Realia about this. According to her, the defense will appeal the verdict.

The prosecutor’s office asked for a shorter term for Pokusyn – seven years and one month in prison.

Prokusyn, who was born and raised in Ukraine, was detained for the first time in May 2022 on suspicion of defacing banners in support of the war. He was charged with a criminal article on vandalism for the fact that he poured yellow and blue paint over a banner with the letter Z (the semi-official symbol of Russia’s war in Ukraine) and wrote “Glory to Ukraine” on the wall of the museum in Abakan, where before that a light screen with the letter Z appeared.

Prokusyn was given a restraining order. In July of the same year, he was detained again – at the Krasnoyarsk airport “Emelyanovo” – and sent under house arrest.

On December 7, he was sentenced to six months probation in the case of vandalism. The next day, he was detained again – in the case of treason. Six months later, the FSB decided that at the Krasnoyarsk airport he asked to leave the country to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

A criminal case was opened against Pokusyn under the article of attempted treason. Later, the article was reclassified as “preparation for state change”. The case featured Pokusyn’s conversations with friends, in which he admitted that he wanted to go to Ukraine and work in civil aviation. According to a Sibir.Realiya source close to Pokusyn’s family, he did not plan to enter the Armed Forces, but only wanted to leave Russia.

Pokusin is a former civilian pilot, he has prostheses instead of two joints and a stent in his heart. In recent years, due to health problems, he worked in a taxi, writes “OVD-Info”

Pokusyn himself stated that he did not hide his anti-war views, but he was not going to fight on anyone’s side. Pokusyn’s defense believes that he gave incriminating statements to the investigator under torture.

• In 2012, Pokusyn organized individual pickets in Abakan demanding a review of the case of his son, who was convicted of drug trafficking. Pokusyn accused the court of destroying evidence of his son’s innocence.
• He organized the “Dokole” public movement, whose members fought abuses by law enforcement officers.
• In 2013, Igor Pokusyn, representing the “Parnas” party, tried to get the registration of a candidate in the elections of deputies of the Supreme Soviet of Khakassia. The electoral committee refused him registration.