Militants in "Donetsk People's Republic" sentence Ukrainian marine to 22 years in prison

A sham court of the illegal "Donetsk People's Republic" ("DPR") has sentenced Andrii Petrenko, a Ukrainian marine, to 22 years in prison.

Source: Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, on Telegram

Details: According to Lubinets, the Russian-controlled "supreme court" of the unrecognised "DPR" has sentenced Andrii Petrenko, a soldier of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, to 22 years' imprisonment in a high-security penal colony.

He was found guilty of killing a civilian during the battle for Mariupol in March 2022.

An unlawful investigation by the Russian Investigative Committee concluded that the Ukrainian soldier shot and killed a resident of Mariupol with a sniper rifle.

Andrii Petrenko was accused under Russian law of "murder for political and ideological reasons, ill-treatment of civilians, and the use of prohibited means and methods in an armed conflict" (Articles 105(2) and 356(1) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

The occupiers have also claimed that the Ukrainian serviceman supposedly "pleaded guilty".

Quote from Lubinets: "The fake ‘trial’ of a serviceman of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk Oblast is unlawful and will have no legal effect.

The ‘verdicts’ issued by the so-called ‘courts’ of DPR/LPR quasi-entities are a gross violation of the Third Geneva Convention in terms of the right of prisoners to a fair trial and the prohibition of torture. It can be considered a war crime. Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts are part of Ukraine within internationally recognised borders and are subject to the jurisdiction of Ukrainian courts. Only they have the right to administer justice on this territory.

I call on the international community to condemn the trial of Andrii Petrenko and demand that Russia immediately release him and other Ukrainian citizens who have been illegally imprisoned in the temporarily occupied territories and in Russia."

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