Russia has convicted 23 captured Ukrainians of terrorism over the conflict in Ukraine in a military court trial that Kyiv has denounced as sham and in violation of international norms.
According to Russian media and human rights groups, the defendants included both current and former fighters from the elite Azov Brigade, which Russia has classified as a terrorist organization, as well as those who worked as cooks or support staff.
The prominent human rights organization Memorial described the defendants as political prisoners, noting that some of them were captured in 2022 during fighting in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, where they were defending the Azovstal steel mill surrounded by Russian troops.
Others were arrested while trying to leave the city after it was captured by Russian forces, the group said.
Only 12 of the defendants were present at the court hearing in Rostov-on-Don on Wednesday; the remaining 11, including nine women, returned to Ukraine as a result of a prisoner exchange and were convicted in absentia.
One of the defendants died in custody last year and his case was closed.
All are charged with plotting a violent coup and operating a terrorist group. Some also face an additional charge of preparing to commit terrorist activity.
The convicted received prison terms ranging from 13 to 23 years.
The court said the 12 people still in custody in Russia will serve their sentences in maximum-security prisons. Russian independent news portal Mediazona reported that all 12 plan to appeal their sentences.
Memorial noted that “none of the defendants in the case are accused of committing any war crimes: they are all being tried only for the fact that they served” in Azov at one time or another.
Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets condemned the trials, which began in June 2023, calling them “another sham trial” conducted for Russia's “own amusement.”
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
