ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (Reuters) – A Russian navy courtroom on Wednesday handed down lengthy jail sentences to 12 members of Ukraine’s Azov regiment, which led the defence of the town of Mariupol within the early months of the conflict and is designated as a “terrorist organisation” by Russia.
The defendants, charged with “terrorist exercise” and with “violently seizing or retaining energy,” have been sentenced to between 13 and 23 years in jail, Russian state media reported.
Unbiased information outlet Mediazona stated 11 different folks whom Russia had already returned to Ukraine in prisoner exchanges have been additionally sentenced in absentia. They included 9 ladies who had labored as military cooks.
It stated the 12 Azov members, who appeared in courtroom with shaven heads, would attraction the verdicts and that a few of them had denied wrongdoing or had stated that testimony that they had given had been obtained beneath duress, one thing Reuters was not capable of affirm.
There was no instant Ukrainian touch upon the verdicts.
The Azov regiment, which is banned inside Russia, has been a particular focus of Russian anger, typically characterised by Moscow as a fanatical grouping of Russia-hating neo-Nazis.
Ukraine rejects Russia’s description of Azov as a terrorist organisation. The regiment was based by a hardline nationalist, Andriy Biletskiy, however subsequently dissociated itself from his politics.
From 2014, it was folded into Ukraine’s Nationwide Guard and Kyiv says it was reformed away from its radical nationalist origins and is now apolitical.
For a lot of Ukrainians, Azov fighters are heroes who got here to symbolise the spirit of nationwide resistance, clinging on within the devastated ruins of Mariupol as Russia besieged the port metropolis between February and Might 2022.
Russia stated almost 2,500 ultimately surrendered, rising from their refuge in an enormous community of bunkers tunnels beneath the town’s Azovstal steelworks. The Kremlin stated on the time that President Vladimir Putin had assured that they might be handled in response to worldwide requirements.
Previous to Wednesday’s sentences, the top of Russia’s state Investigative Committee stated earlier this month that Russian courts had to date convicted 145 Azov members.
(Reporting by Reuters, writing by Mark Trevelyan; Enhancing by Andrew Osborn)
