A military court in Russia has sentenced a woman from Crimea to 15 years in prison on accusations of treason and terrorism linked to Ukraine’s military intelligence, as reported by Russian media on Friday.
Alina Grek faced charges for allegedly transmitting videos of a railway facility in Crimea to Ukraine’s HUR intelligence agency in late 2023 and receiving training in explosives from them in early 2024.
She was apprehended on January 22, 2024, after reportedly creating a second explosive device, according to the state-run news agency RIA Novosti.
The independent news outlet Mediazona identified Grek as a 26-year-old from Simferopol, Crimea’s second-largest city, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Following her arrest, Grek was designated as a “terrorist and extremist,” which enables Russian authorities to freeze her bank accounts without a judicial order, just one week later.
Mediazona also mentioned that Grek’s profile on the Russian social media platform Vkontakte refers to her hometown as “Simferopol, Ukraine.”
The Southern District Military Court located in Rostov-on-Don convicted Grek of treason, training for terrorist activities, and conspiring to execute a terrorist act, as reported by RIA Novosti citing a court spokesperson.
The sentence was announced on Thursday, according to documentation referenced by Mediazona.
Mediazona added that Grek’s father chose not to comment on his daughter’s sentencing.
