The court ruled that the «case had incorrectly formulated the» charge and sided with the IT specialist.
According to the materials affairs which was considered by the Velyky Berezny District Court of Transcarpathian region (via dev.ua), the EPAM IT specialist was detained on August 28 on the outskirts of the village of Sil, Uzhhorod district, Zakarpattia region — 5.1 km from the state border with Slovakia — and accused of attempting to illegally cross it.
The IT specialist himself did not appear at the hearing, but submitted a statement explaining his absence «by the long distance to his place of residence». Moreover, the man writes that he arrived in Zakarpattia region to visit several settlements and tourist complexes and then return to Lviv. He adds that he had no intention of crossing the border — and had neither a passport nor currency with him.
It is noteworthy that the programmer emphasizes that he was detained in the village of Poroshkovo, not in the village of Sil. As evidence, the man also provided the court with copies of an extract from the order of the Ministry of Economy on booking, an order for leave dated 26.08.2024, a military registration document from the «Reserve+» system, and receipts for payments.
In the decision, the court ruled that the report drawn up against the EPAM IT specialist did not specify «what exactly the essence of the offense was and what actions he had taken to do so» and that the text was generally formulated «incorrectly». There is also no evidence that the man was detained directly while trying to cross the border and on the outskirts of the village of Sil.
«The programmer’s stay in the controlled border area without providing proper and admissible evidence cannot indicate that he tried to illegally cross the state border of Ukraine», — the decision says.
The court ruled to close the proceedings due to the absence of an administrative offense in the programmer’s actions.