Ukraine passes first sentence on person for abduction of people from Crimea
"Judge" is involved in the deportation of Ukrainians from occupied Crimea (Photo:САП)
A Moscow-appointed judge involved in the abduction of a Crimean resident from the Russian-occupied Ukrainian peninsula has been sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison, the Prosecutor's Office of Crimea and Sevastopol City reported on Telegram.
This is the first sentence in Ukraine for the kidnapping of civilians from Crimea that could serve as a precedent in the Ukrainian legal system, said the head of the prosecutor's office, Igor Ponochovny.
The judge, Larysa Likhacheva, was found guilty of violating the laws and customs of war (Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), Ukrainian outlet Babel wrote.
"The 'judge' knew for certain that since 2014 the residents of Crimea have had the status of persons protected by international humanitarian law. Despite this, she decided to expel a citizen of Ukraine from the occupied peninsula," the prosecutor's office said in the statement.
Likhacheva explained the illegal decision by the alleged lack of permits and non-compliance with the "rules for staying in Russia."
"(Her actions) are a serious violation of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilians of 1949, which prohibits, regardless of motive, the forcible individual or mass transfer or abduction of persons from an occupied territory," the Crimean prosecutor's office wrote.
Three more similar cases are pending before a court. Three messages containing evidence of the mass abduction of Ukrainians from Crimea annexed by Russia, the forced transfer of Crimeans to the mainland of Ukraine, and the detention of Crimeans for political reasons have been sent to the International Criminal Court.
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