The Prosecutor General's Office has launched a pre-trial investigation into the possible torture and murder of a volunteer from Great Britain by servicemen of armed forces controlled by the Russian Federation. Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin announced this during a briefing.
It has been preliminarily established that in April 2022, during the implementation of volunteer activities for the evacuation of the civilian population in the Zaporizhzhia region, the volunteer was illegally captured by servicemen of the Russian armed forces. After that, he was deprived of his liberty and forcibly transported to the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk region.
In July 2022, the occupation administration of the Russian Federation disseminated information about the alleged death of a volunteer "due to illness and stress." Only after more than 1.5 months of negotiations and the principled position of Ukraine, the Russian Federation returned his body to the territory controlled by Ukraine.
According to the Prosecutor General's information, the volunteer's body has signs of physical injuries, which may indicate that he was ill-treated, which could be the real reason for his death. "The body, provided by the aggressor country, was stored in improper conditions and is in a mutilated state, so the true causes of death will be established after the forensic medical examination," he noted.
The investigation of this criminal proceeding is entrusted to the Main Investigative Department of the Security Service of Ukraine. The Prosecutor General took his course under personal control.
"The Russian Federation once again shows its cannibalistic face; thousands of citizens, including civilians, illegally held hostage by Russia in the temporarily occupied territory are subjected to torture and are threatened with extrajudicial executions every day. According to the Geneva Convention for the Protection of the Civilian Population in Time of War, it is forbidden to take civilians, hostage, mutilate them, carry out cruel treatment, and torture, and subject them to persecution. Civilians must also have access to medical care and medicines. "Unfortunately, the Russian Federation does not follow any of the rules of the civilized world signed by it," Andriy Kostin emphasized.
He expressed his sincere condolences to the family and friends of the deceased: "Ukrainians will never forget everyone who stood by to help our country in the fight against Russian aggression, as a civilian volunteer or a military volunteer."
