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Finnish prosecutors accuse Russia of war crimes in Ukraine
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Finnish prosecutors accuse Russia of war crimes in Ukraine

Finnish authorities on Thursday charged a Russian national with alleged war crimes in Ukraine in 2014.

The Nordic country’s deputy prosecutor general, Jukka Rappe, presented the charges against Voji – Slav Torden, commander of the Russian neo-Nazi paramilitary group Rusich – on Thursday before the Helsinki District Court.

Torden is suspected of committing five war crimes in Ukraine in 2014, which left 22 Ukrainian soldiers dead and four others seriously injured, Rappe told AFP.

“In three of the cases, Ukrainian soldiers were killed or wounded and the other two charges concern some other type of violation of the laws of war,” the prosecutor said.

In a statement, Finland’s National Prosecutor’s Office said the charges also related to actions “contrary to the laws of war… and the treatment of wounded and dead enemy soldiers.”

The suspect, who was detained at Helsinki airport in July 2023, denied the crimes.

Finland’s Supreme Court has ruled that Torden, formerly known as Yan Petrovsky, cannot be extradited to Ukraine due to the risk of him suffering inhuman conditions in prison.

In early October, Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) completed a comprehensive investigation launched in December 2023, suspecting Torden of several war crimes committed in the fall of 2014 in eastern Ukraine.

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The investigation involved close cooperation with Ukrainian prosecutors and security services, as well as Europol, the International Criminal Court and Eurojust, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation.

Finland has adopted “universal jurisdiction,” a legal principle that allows it to bring charges on its territory for alleged crimes committed anywhere in the world.

The court has not yet set a trial date, but Rappe said he expected it to begin in November.