They want to hide their crimes: the ombudsman explained why Russia recognized Azov as a “terrorist organization” ,
Dmytro Lubinets .
KYIV. UkraineGate . 3 . August . 2022 | Political News.
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized the “Azov” regiment as a “terrorist organization” in order to hide systemic and massive violations of international law and the commission of war crimes in an unjustified war against Ukraine. The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, reported this in his Telegram .
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“We can already see that these actions are aimed at forming the legal position of the Russian Federation regarding the non-application of the provisions of the Third Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War and the refusal to grant status to captured military personnel to the soldiers of the Azov unit. This is also an attempt to legalize the shameful words of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Great Britain, which were published on July 29 in the official twitter, where it is stated that the fighters of “Azov” are not “real soldiers” and “deserve the death penalty by hanging”, Lubinets noted.
Details
The Human Rights Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada sees the following possible consequences of the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation:
First, this decision is an attempt by Russia to remove the prisoners of war of the “Azov” regiment from the Third Geneva Convention. To put it simply, Russia will deny ICRC representatives access to prisoners of war and consider it legal. This will make it impossible to check the state of health, prevent the use of extrajudicial executions, torture, and ill-treatment of prisoners of war. Russia will stop providing information through the ICRC (Central Tracing Agency) to relatives of prisoners of war about captivity and other information;
The second possible consequence is the application to prisoners of war of criminal prosecution within the framework of general criminal law on the territory of the Russian Federation. That is, on the territory of the Russian Federation, prisoners of war will be tried as terrorists only for their connection to the organization, regardless of the actions that specific servicemen have committed. Also, the application of such norms can occur to civilians, if they provided assistance or otherwise interacted with the “Azov” regiment. Punishment in the Russian Federation under these articles provides from 10 to 20 years of imprisonment.
“As the Human Rights Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, I draw the attention of the international community to the Russian Federation’s abuse of law in the field of combating terrorism. The real purpose of such actions of Russia is to hide systemic and massive violations of the norms of international law and the commission of war crimes in an unjustified war against Ukraine,” the Ombudsman emphasized.
Addition
On August 2, the Supreme Court of Russia recognized the “Azov” regiment as a “terrorist organization” . The meeting was held in closed session.
In response to the “recognition” of “Azov” as a terrorist organization in Russia, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the IOM stated that it is a separate special unit of the National Guard of Ukraine.
Source: Ukrgate
