A Russian citizen, the leader of one of illegal armed formations controlled by the Russian Federation, former so-called "Minister of Defense" of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" ("DPR"), has been informed of a suspected violation of the laws and customs of war.
This was reported by the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) of Ukraine.
According to UNIAN's sources in law enforcement agencies, the case involves so-called "ex-Minister of Defense of the "DPR" terrorist group Igor Girkin (nom de guerre Strelkov).
He is charged with Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
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The suspect is put on the wanted list, the court has given permission to detain him in order to bring him to court to consider a request for the application of a preventive measure in the form of detention.
"During the pretrial investigation, it was established that between April 17, 2014, and April 19, 2014, the suspect, acting in a preliminary conspiracy by a group of persons with militants subordinate to him, using physical violence, organized the search and abduction of patriotic citizens of Ukraine in Donetsk region. Later on, they were moved against their will into a specially equipped building in the town of Slovyansk, where they were tortured, beaten, stabbed and suffered from other violent acts aimed at inflicting severe physical and mental suffering in order to revenge for [their] pro-Ukrainian position," the PGO said.
According to the investigation, in pursuance of the orders of the suspect, the militants subordinate to him intentionally killed at least three people who were illegally detained and tortured. The pretrial investigation of criminal proceedings is carried out by the Main Investigation Department of the SBU Security Service of Ukraine under the SBU Counterintelligence Department's supervision.
