{"id":61152,"date":"2026-06-25T16:47:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T13:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/?post_type=news&p=61152"},"modified":"2026-06-26T12:44:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T09:44:02","slug":"irkutsk-man-with-epilepsy-and-a-tracheostomy-sentenced-to-fifteen-years-for-treason","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/memopzk.org\/en\/news\/irkutsk-man-with-epilepsy-and-a-tracheostomy-sentenced-to-fifteen-years-for-treason\/","title":{"rendered":"Irkutsk man with epilepsy and a tracheostomy sentenced to fifteen years for treason"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dmitry Rupenko, who was detained after filming near an aviation plant, has been sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment, according<\/a> to SOTAvision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first three and a half years are to be served in prison, the remainder in a strict-regime penal colony. The prosecution had sought seventeen years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Irkutsk Regional Court found Dmitry Rupenko guilty of treason under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code and of aiding and abetting sabotage under part 3 of Article 281.1. He was detained in July 2024 while operating a drone near the Irkutsk Aviation Plant. According to the investigation, he was acting on the instructions of a ‘Ukrainian handler’ and had himself proposed the plant as a target for Ukrainian drones. ‘A linguist from Moscow noted that the “Ukrainian handler” was imitating the Ukrainian language in correspondence with Rupenko,’<\/em> SOTAvision reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was officially remanded<\/a> in custody on 20 September 2024 \u2014 following his initial detention, he was held in a flat by FSB officers. Other defendants charged with treason \u2014 Vadim Nekrashchuk and Andrei Padalka<\/a> \u2014 have similarly reported being held in an FSB safe house in Irkutsk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dmitry Rupenko is 32 years old. He has suffered<\/a> from epilepsy since the age of eleven and from an organic personality disorder caused by epilepsy since the age of eighteen. He also has ulcerative colitis and has a Group II disability. He has made several suicide attempts over the course of his life; following one of them, a tracheostomy had to be performed. He has a large, unhealing wound in the front wall of his trachea that requires constant cleaning and dressing. According to his mother, remand prison sometimes lacks even hydrogen peroxide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More broadly, he has faced the systematic denial of medical care in custody. He has made further suicide attempts while in remand prison. In March, he was placed in a punishment cell \u2014 which his mother described<\/a> as ‘cold, windowless and infested with rats’.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-61152","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","regions-irkutsk-oblast","news-type-nashi-novosti-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIrkutsk man with epilepsy and a tracheostomy sentenced to fifteen years for treason - Political prisoners support. 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