In France, law enforcement officers detained a member of a terrorist organization involved in torturing people in the Izolyatsia prison in occupied Donetsk. Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Kravchenko announced this on May 8 on Telegram.
According to the investigation, in 2017–2019, a citizen of Ukraine voluntarily collaborated with the so-called Ministry of State Security of the “DPR”.
Former prisoners say that he was an assistant warden. According to them, he participated in the torture of prisoners, treated them cruelly, exerted psychological pressure, forced confessions and humiliated people. At least nine victims have been identified so far.
As the Prosecutor General pointed out, in 2020, when Ukraine completed the investigation and sent the case to court, the accused fled from Ukraine to France and tried to obtain refugee status there.
After an appeal from Ukraine, French law enforcement officers opened their own criminal proceedings. Together with Ukrainian prosecutors, they interrogated the victims, and the Ukrainian side handed over additional case materials to strengthen the evidence.
The man was detained. At the request of the French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office, he was taken into custody and charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
As Kravchenko noted, this is the second case of detention abroad of persons involved in committing war crimes in Ukraine. The first was the verdict in Finland of a militant of the Russian armed forces, who was sentenced to life imprisonment. The appeal of this decision is now in its final stages.
