Lviv Resident Accused of Organizing Illegal Border Crossing
Prosecutors from the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office have sent an indictment to court against a 66-year-old Lviv resident. He is accused of organizing illegal transportation of a person across the state border of Ukraine (Part 3, Article 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
Scheme of Illegal Transportation
According to the investigation, last summer the accused organized an unlawful scheme to profit from the illegal transportation of a conscription-age man abroad, particularly to Poland.
According to the preliminary plan, the defendant was to assist in preparing documents for 7,000 US dollars, which would purportedly provide legal grounds for crossing the state border without hindrance.
However, in September the accused proposed an alternative means to implement the transportation plan: the ‘client’ was to cross the border as a train assistant in a freight carriage going from Lviv. If that encountered problems, the conscription-age man was to hide in a compartment carriage of another train to exit the country.
The price for such a service was 15,000 euros.
Arrest and Investigation
The accused was detained under Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine after receiving the full agreed sum of money.
The pre-trial investigation was conducted by investigators from the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Lviv region, with operational support by the Security Service of Ukraine’s Directorate in the Lviv region.
Note: According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is considered innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in a lawful manner and established by a court’s guilty verdict.