OSCE Official Gets Jail Term For 'Spying' In Russian-Occupied Ukraine

By AFP

A court in Ukraine's Russian-controlled Donetsk region on July 12 jailed a member of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine for "espionage" in a judgment condemned by the European security organization. The Supreme Court of the Russia-backed separatist group that calls itself the Donetsk People's Republic found Vadym Holda, 56, guilty and sentenced him to 14 years in a strict-regime penal colony, Russia's Prosecutor-General's Office said in a statement. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) condemned it as "a grave violation of participating states' commitments under international law" and called for the immediate release of Holda and two other jailed OSCE officials.