Renowned Venezuelan criminal lawyer and human rights specialist Tamara Suju Roa has become the mentor of the political prisoner from Kherson, Iryna Horobtsova, as part of the advocacy mentorship initiative.
This was reported by the Crimean Human Rights Group.
Tamara Suju Roa is known for her long-standing contribution to the fight for human rights in Venezuela. She opposes political persecution, torture and violence, defending victims and drawing the international community’s attention to human rights violations in the country.
The Russians abducted Iryna Horobtsova on 13 May 2022. At first the woman was held in the Kherson pre-trial detention center (SIZO), where she was seen by the mayor of Hola Prystan, Oleksandr Babych, then she was transferred to SIZO No. 1 in Simferopol.
The Russian Federation did not bring any charges against Iryna for almost two years. She also could not correspond with relatives or receive packages from them. Her case was classified and court hearings concerning her were closed even to her lawyers.
In April 2024 the woman was accused of espionage and a few months later was illegally sentenced to 10.5 years imprisonment in a general regime correctional colony. The Russians claim that Horobtsova allegedly collected and passed to Ukrainian intelligence information about the locations, times and routes of movement of Russian military personnel in the Kherson region during 2022–2023.
It later became known that the Russians forced Horobtsova to sign a “confession”.
At present Iryna Horobtsova is being held in Colony No. 2 in the settlement of Yavas in Mordovia.