The Russian Prosecutor’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case over the fact of murder of Russian citizens in South Ossetia under the Criminal Code article “genocide,” Igor Komissarov, an aide to the committee’s chairman, told Itar-Tass.
“The Investigative Committee’s main department have instituted criminal proceedings under Article 357 of the Russian Criminal Code- “genocide” based on received information on actions taken by the Georgian armed forces aimed at the liquidation of citizens of Russia residing in South Ossetia and Ossetians by nationality by way of murders and infliction of heavy damage to health,” said Komissarov.
About 100 Russian investigators are continuing work in Tskhinval at present probing into the killings of Russian citizens and Russian peacekeepers.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s actions in South Ossetia are a war crime and an act of genocide against Ossetians, Russian permanent representative to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said earlier. “At least 2,500 people have already fallen victim to a humanitarian catastrophe in South Ossetia. Since the entire population of South Ossetia is 73,000, proportionately this is the biggest act of genocide in the history of Europe since World War II,” Rogozin told a briefing on Monday.
