Natalia Golfiner
- Criminal Code
- Article 205.5 part 1, Russian Criminal CodeArticle 278, Russian Criminal Code
- Case category
- Terrorism cases
- Verdict
- Imprisonment (in absentia)
- Sentence
- 14 years
- Date of verdict
- 2025-03-26
- Region
- Rostov Oblast
- City
- Rostov-on-Don
Recognition by human rights organisations
- Recognised as a political prisonerby Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners, 12 January 2024
This is the assessment of the organisation named above, not ours. FACTUM reports it with attribution and does not make its own.
Case summary
She was the head of the food warehouse in the Ukrainian regiment "Azov" from April 2019 to 15 January 2022. After the war started, she refused to go to work. She was detained in Mariupol on 7 April 2022. She was accused of organising the activities of a terrorist organisation and forcible seizure and retention of power. Human rights activists note that she is a prisoner of war, so she should not have been held criminally liable for combat participation, and in addition, they consider the charges absurd.
On 13 September 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Golfiner was returned to Ukraine as part of an exchange. On 26 March 2025, she was sentenced in absentia to 14 years in prison.
Others charged under Article 205.5 part 1, Russian Criminal Code
What we write about political persecution
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Source: this person’s record in the OVD-Info political persecution database
Published under CC BY 3.0. The criteria for treating a person as politically persecuted belong to OVD-Info; FACTUM relays their assessment and makes none of its own.
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