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Fifteen members of a Ukrainian militia group were convicted by a Russian military court on Friday of taking part in “A terrorist organization“and sentenced to a maximum of 15 to 21 years Security penal colony, RussiaThe Prosecutor General said.
These people were members of Ukraine’s Aidar battalion who were captured in 2022. His trial took place behind closed doors in a military court in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
There was no immediate comment on the decision from Ukraine, whose human rights ombudsman has previously called the proceedings shameful.
Rights groups, including Russia’s Memorial, have charged that prosecuting the men violates the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
Russia rejected this, as the allegations were based on alleged activity eight years before the start of a full-scale war between the two countries in 2022. The men were not charged with war crimes.
Aidar was one of dozens of volunteer battalions that emerged in Ukraine in 2014 after fighting broke out with Russia-backed groups that declared a breakaway “republic” in the east of the country. Some units with ultra-nationalist roots were later absorbed into the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The charges against the individuals relate to the period from August 2014 to March 2022, when they were accused of participating in a banned terrorist group and acting with the aim of “violently seizing power and overthrowing the constitutional order of the Russian Federation.”
Russian news outlet Mash quoted a lawyer for the accused men as saying that two of them had pleaded guilty but the other 13 planned to appeal.