Georgia releases Yulia Suslyak, Ukrainian national, accused of child trafficking

Georgia has released Ukrainian national Yulia Suslyak, who was detained for child trafficking by Georgian police earlier in April.

Suslyak’s lawyer Zurab Todua said the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office released her as there were not enough evidence to keep her in prison. 

Todua says the Prosecutor’s Office plans to send case materials to the Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine for further investigation. 

Ukrainian national Yulia Suslyak arrived in Georgia with ten children on April 8 and was arrested later on April 25 for child trafficking, for which she would have served 14 to 17 years in prison if convicted. 

On June 7, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sent a plane to Georgia to have the ten children returned to Ukraine. Photo: 1tv.

Police reported that the woman came to Georgia from Russia and planned to move to the occupied territory of Abkhazia with the children she was accompanying. 

Police found documents for the ten children which all gave their surnames as hers. Police suspected child trafficking because four of the children were born in 2017. 

Later, police discovered that four of the children belonged to Yulia while the other six belonged to her husband Yuri Suslyak.

Afterwards, on June 7, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sent a plane to Georgia to have the ten children returned to Ukraine.

Yulia Suslyak left prison at about 1 p.m. on July 19.