Ukrainian court hands down first verdict in Crimea deportation case

The Ukrainian court passed the first sentence in a case of the deportation of the population from the temporarily occupied Crimea. A local "judge" who was involved in the deportation of Crimean residents from the temporarily occupied peninsula was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison.

This was reported on Telegram by the Prosecutor's Office for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukrinform saw.

It is noted that the "judge" was found guilty of violating the laws and customs of war (Article 438 Part 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Prosecutors noted that, after the occupation of the peninsula, the "judge" sided with the invaders and took office at illegally created judicial bodies, assuming the leadership position of "chairman of the Armiansk City Court of the Republic of Crimea."

She took a direct part in the implementation of the criminal policy of the occupying power, aimed at altering Crimea’s demographic composition.

The "judge" reliably knew that since 2014, residents of Crimea have gained the status of persons under the protection of international humanitarian law. Contrary to this fact, she made a decision to expel a citizen of Ukraine from the territory of the temporarily occupied peninsula," the prosecutor's office emphasized.

The illegal judgment was motivated by the alleged lack of a residence permit and non-observance of the "rules of staying on the territory of the Russian Federation". However, no additional permits of the Russian occupation administration in Crimea for the residence of Ukrainian citizens residing on the temporarily occupied peninsula are provided for under the national legislation, the prosecutor's office stressed.

"Therefore, this is a serious violation of the requirements of Art. 49 of the Convention on the Protection of the Civilian Population of 1949, which prohibits, regardless of the motives, forcible individual or mass resettlement or deportation of persons from the occupied territory," the report elaborates.

It is noted that three more indictments on similar crimes are currently being heard by Ukrainian courts.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Ukrainian court passed the first sentence in a war crime case for the temporarily occupied Crimea. Two former SBU employees who tortured Euromaidan activist Oleksandr Kostenko were sentenced in absentia to nine and 10 years in prison.