The US Department of Justice took the unprecedented step of charging four Russian soldiers with war crimes against an American citizen living in Ukraine, who was allegedly beaten, tortured and sentenced to death.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday it was the first charge brought under a little-known 1996 federal law that allows the US to prosecute people who have committed war crimes against Americans abroad.
“As the world has witnessed the horror of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, so has the United States Department of Justice,” Garland said at a press conference.
The victim, who has not been identified, was abducted from her home in the village of Mylove in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region in April 2022 and held by Russia for 10 days, according to a 9-page indictment unsealed in Virginia federal court and reviewed by The Post.
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday announced war crimes charges against four Russian soldiers accused of torturing a US citizen in Ukraine. MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
During the ordeal, the American was stripped and photographed, punched, kicked and smashed with the butt of a gun.
He was also allegedly subjected to interrogations and a simulated execution, in which a gun was placed behind his head, then moved slightly and fired, with the bullet passing through his head, according to the indictment.
The prisoner was repeatedly threatened with death, and even asked for his last words.
One of her captors also threatened to rape the American and “sexually touch her” by kissing her cheek and rubbing her ear.
“Over and over again, he believed he was going to die,” Garland said.
The American was kidnapped in Kherson region, beaten repeatedly, threatened with death and sentenced to death (file photo) REUTERS Russia denies committing war crimes and targeting civilians in Ukraine. AFP via Getty Images
The American, who has lived in Ukraine since 2021, did not fight in the war against Russia and is a protected person under the 1949 Geneva Convention, the indictment said.
The defendants were identified as commanding officers Suren Seiranovich Mkrtchyan, 45, and Dmitry Budnik, and two low-ranking soldiers identified in the indictment only by their first names, Valerii and Nazar.
The four Russians are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit war crimes and three counts of war crimes – unlawful detention of protected persons, torture and inhuman treatment.
Prosecutors said the suspects were either members of the Russian military or military units from the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, a region in eastern Ukraine illegally controlled by Russia.
The defendant is not in custody and is unlikely to appear in the US to face charges.
FBI Director Christopher Wray accused Russia of weaponizing human rights abuses during the war. MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Garland, however, described the indictment as “an important step toward accountability for the Russian regime’s illegal war in Ukraine.”
The indictment is the culmination of a year-long investigation by the DOJ’s war crimes team formed to examine reports of atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
Federal investigators traveled to Europe in August 2022 to interview the victim, who had been transferred from Ukraine after being released from custody.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
