Trial of Azov Brigade members is a war crime – position of the Center for Civil Liberties
June 15, 2023, Kyiv
On Wednesday, June 14, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don began hearing a case against 22 Ukrainian soldiers from the Azov battalion. Among the defendants are eight women. They are accused of terrorist activities against the Russian Federation.
All Azov Regiment members are members of the National Guard of Ukraine and are combatants under international humanitarian law. Combatants enjoy a privilege that protects them from criminal prosecution by the opposing party to an international armed conflict – in this case, the Russian Federation – for their mere participation in hostilities.
Since the Azov Brigade soldiers are accused of “involvement in a terrorist organization” and “actions aimed at seizing power”, they are effectively being prosecuted for participating in hostilities, thus violating the privilege, which is axiomatic in international humanitarian law. Such actions by the Russian authorities contradict Article 43 of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977. We remind you that combatants can only be held accountable for acts of participation in hostilities that constitute war crimes.
Violation of the combatant’s privilege means that the Russian side is committing a war crime, which consists in depriving a prisoner of war of the right to a fair trial. This is a serious violation of international humanitarian law under Article 130 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 1949 and Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court of 1998.
We call on international governmental organizations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to use all their influence on the Russian authorities to stop this serious violation of international humanitarian law.
We call on the Prosecutor General’s office of Ukraine and the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to conduct an effective and impartial investigation of the ongoing war crime and bring the perpetrators to justice.
UPD. The Center for Civil Liberties contacted the relatives of the people who were put on trial in Rostov-on-Don. It turned out that there are several civilians among them, although the occupiers consider all the detainees to be military personnel. At least two people were out of contract at the time of the full-scale invasion and were out of service. Information about other civilians is still being clarified. As for their detention and unlawful custody “as prisoners of war,” this in itself constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law. At the time of their detention, these people were ordinary civilians whom the occupying power has no right to detain without cause or to keep beyond the time necessary to determine whether they pose a danger to the occupier. The confinement of civilians “as prisoners of war” is an arbitrary violation of the principles of international humanitarian law.
