Boyfriend of L.A. ballerina detained in Russia was 'thinking of proposing'
The boyfriend of a Los Angeles woman detained in Russia was thinking of proposing to her before she was imprisoned on treason charges, he told NBC News on Thursday.
The boyfriend of a Los Angeles woman detained in Russia was thinking of proposing to her before she was imprisoned on treason charges, he told NBC News on Thursday.
Chris Van Heerden, 33, said it was “painful” that the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg had denied a request from Ksenia Karelina’s lawyers to lift her detention and replace it with house arrest.
“I didn’t get my hopes up,” said Van Heerden, a South African boxer known as “The Heat,” adding that he knew Karelina, a 33-year-old dual U.S.-Russian citizen, was “going to need a miracle” for a judge to order her release from prison, and he was “so sad” that Karelina had to go back to jail.
After she was detained last month, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) alleged that since February 2022, Karelina had “proactively collected funds in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organizations, which were subsequently used to purchase tactical medicine, equipment, weapons and ammunition by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
It did not provide further details or evidence of her alleged crime. A criminal case has been launched against her, the FSB said, and she is facing charges of treason, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
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