Ukrainians, together with members of elite Azov Brigade, obtain sentences of 13 to 23 years in a trial Kyiv condemns.
A courtroom within the Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don has convicted 23 Ukrainians on “terrorism” prices in a trial that Kyiv has denounced as a sham and a violation of worldwide legislation.
The defendants embody 12 captured members of Ukraine’s elite Azov Brigade, which led the defence of the town of Mariupol within the early months of Russia’s conflict.
The prisoners have been discovered responsible on Wednesday on prices of attempting to stage a violent coup and organising actions for a “terrorist” organisation. Some additionally confronted prices of overseeing unlawful navy drills as a part of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
They got sentences starting from 13 to 23 years in jail, to be served in penal colonies with the harshest regimes, the Prosecutor-Normal’s Workplace stated.
Unbiased information outlet Mediazona stated that in addition to the 12 Avoz members, 11 different individuals whom Russia had already returned to Ukraine in prisoner exchanges have been sentenced in absentia. They included 9 girls who had labored as military cooks.
Mediazona stated the Azov members would enchantment the verdicts and that a few of them had denied wrongdoing or had stated that testimony they’d given had been obtained underneath duress.
Wednesday’s verdict comes a day after Russia and Ukraine agreed to halt military strikes on vessels within the Black Sea with a view to ushering in a broader ceasefire that may carry an finish to the three-year Russia-Ukraine conflict.
‘Sham trial’
Memorial, a outstanding Russian rights group that received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, has designated the Ukrainian defendants as political prisoners.
In accordance with Memorial, a few of them have been captured in 2022 throughout preventing in 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 the town after it was overrun by Russian forces, the group stated.
The Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, denounced the proceedings once they started in June 2023 as “one other sham trial” held for Russia’s “personal amusement”.
“Russia and truthful justice don’t have anything in frequent. The world should reply to such shameful sham trials of Ukrainian defenders,” Lubinets stated.
He added: “It’s apparent to everybody that those that ought to be within the dock will not be 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.”
The Azov Brigade is banned inside Russia and is characterised by Moscow as a fanatical grouping of Russia-hating neo-Nazis. Ukraine rejects Russia’s description of Azov as a “terrorist” organisation.
The regiment was based by a hardline nationalist, Andriy Biletskiy, however subsequently dissociated itself from his politics. From 2014, it was folded into Ukraine’s Nationwide Guard.
For a lot of Ukrainians, Azov fighters are heroes who got here to symbolise the spirit of nationwide resistance, clinging on within the devastated ruins of Mariupol as Russia besieged the port metropolis between February and Could 2022.
