The court issued a verdict in absentia against former Kherson journalist Yevhen Belyi, who during the occupation of the city headed a Russian newspaper. For a combination of crimes he was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment with confiscation of all property.
This is stated in the court’s verdict.
The investigation established that no later than July 2022 Belyi voluntarily began cooperating with representatives of the FSB and the occupation administration. He was appointed chief editor of the illegal enterprise “Editorial office of the newspaper “Naddnipryanska Pravda”.
In this position Belyi personally selected staff: journalists, layout designers and proofreaders, coordinated anti-Ukrainian articles with the leadership of the occupation VCA, managed the printing shop and approved layouts of municipal newspapers for the occupied territories: “Nova Kakhovka”, “Kakhovska Zorya”, “Zolota Nyva”, “Holoprystanskyi Visnyk” та «Чорноморець”.
In issues of the newspaper published under Belyi’s editorship, materials that justified Russia’s aggression and called for changing Ukraine’s borders were systematically published.
Besides print propaganda, Belyi participated in creating videos. In particular, in March 2024 he publicly urged residents of the temporarily occupied territories (TOT) to take part in the illegal elections of the President of the Russian Federation, stating: “Our will cannot be broken! Everyone who came to early voting proved — we are together with Russia”.
The court found Yevhen Belyi guilty under four articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – part 6 of Article 111-1 (Information activities in cooperation with the aggressor), part 5 of Article 111-1 (Public calls to hold illegal elections/referendums), part 1 of Article 110 (Encroachment on the territorial integrity of Ukraine) and part 3 of Article 436-2 (Justification and denial of Russia’s armed aggression).
In addition to the 12-year term of imprisonment, he is banned for 15 years from holding positions in government bodies.
Recall, Yevhen Belyi began working as a journalist for the newspaper “Городянин та городянка”, which belonged to Volodymyr Saldo. Later he was deputy chief editor of the municipal newspaper “Херсонський вісник”.
After 2014 he left Kherson, after which he worked as the editor-in-chief of the website “Індустріалка” and lived in Odesa.