Russia on Wednesday convicted 23 captured Ukrainians on terrorism charges stemming from the preventing in Ukraine in a trial that Kyiv denounced as a sham and a violation of worldwide regulation.
The defendants included 14 present or former fighters of the elite Azov brigade, which Russia designated a terrorist group, and 9 girls and one man who labored as cooks or help personnel, in line with Russian media reviews and rights activists. Twelve defendants weren’t in courtroom — 11 had returned to Ukraine in two prisoner exchanges and have been convicted in absentia. Yet another died in custody final yr, and the case in opposition to him had been closed.
All had been charged with staging a violent coup d’etat and organizing the actions of a terrorist group. Some confronted a further cost of coaching to hold out terrorist actions.
These convicted got sentences starting from 13 to 23 years in jail. The 12 males nonetheless in Russian custody will serve their sentences in most safety penal colonies, in line with the courtroom ruling.
Memorial, a outstanding Russian rights group that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, has designated all of the defendants as political prisoners. In accordance with Memorial, a few of them have been captured in 2022 throughout preventing within the port metropolis of Mariupol, the place they held out on the Azovstal metal mill, besieged by Russian troops. Others have been detained as they tried to go away town after it was overrun by Russian forces, the group mentioned.
Ukraine’s human rights envoy, Dmytro Lubinets, denounced the proceedings after they started in June 2023 as “one other sham trial” held for Russia’s “personal amusement.”
“‘Russia’ and ‘honest justice’ don’t have anything in frequent. The world should reply to such shameful sham trials of Ukrainian defenders,” Lubinets mentioned on the time. “It’s apparent to everybody that those that ought to be within the dock should not these defending themselves however those that initiated the aggression, those that invaded overseas land with weapons, and people who arrived with tanks on the territory of an unbiased state!”
That very same month, Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak mentioned on X that the trial of combatants amounted to “an official struggle crime” that warrants a response from the Worldwide Prison Court docket.
Petro Yatsenko, a consultant of the Ukrainian Coordination Heart for the Remedy of POWs, echoed his sentiment in remarks quoted by the Hromadske information outlet, saying the proceedings violated the Geneva Conventions on the remedy of prisoners of struggle.
The trial was held in a army courtroom in Rostov-on-Don, the place Russia’s Southern Navy District is headquartered, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of the border with Ukraine.
Russian unbiased information website Mediazona reported that the defendants testified about abuse behind bars through the trial, saying they have been severely overwhelmed and had their bones damaged, have been interrogated with luggage over their heads, got meals laced with family chemical compounds and have been pressured to face all day lengthy and sing the Russian anthem.
These allegations are in keeping with reviews by Russian and worldwide human rights teams that element systematic abuse of Ukrainian prisoners of struggle and civilian captives within the Russian custody.
