A judge from Yalta will stand trial for deporting a Ukrainian from Crimea

In Ukraine, a judge from the Russian-controlled Yalta City Court has been accused of committing a war crime. He ordered the deportation of a Ukrainian citizen from Crimea.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the occupying judge faces up to 12 years in prison for this decision.

The accused is a former judge of the Yalta City Court who voluntarily defected to the enemy in 2014.

According to the investigation, in addition to supporting the activities of the occupying judicial system, he assisted the enemy in implementing a policy to alter the demographic composition of Crimea’s population.

In 2014, the defendant, acting in violation of international humanitarian law and guided by Russian legislation, issued an unlawful ruling against a Ukrainian citizen. The victim was deemed a foreigner on the territory of his own state and was ordered to be forcibly expelled from the Crimean Peninsula.

The prosecutor’s office emphasized that Crimean residents are protected by international humanitarian law and do not require any permits from the aggressor state to reside in the occupied territory.

In doing so, the defendant grossly violated the provisions of the 1949 Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and Additional Protocol I thereto. According to these provisions, the forced individual or mass deportation of persons from occupied territory, regardless of the motives, is prohibited. 

The prosecutor’s office did not disclose the defendant’s full name. According to “Krym.Realii,” the individual in question is Igor Kairo. 

<i>In</i>2023, a Ukrainian courtfoundIgor Kairo guilty of high treason and sentenced him to 13 years in prison.

Prior to this, another judge was charged in connection with the deportation of a Ukrainian citizen from the peninsula. The judge in question is Yevgeny Skisov of the occupation-controlled Alushta City Court, who unlawfully ordered the expulsion of a Ukrainian citizen from the peninsula due to his refusal to obtain a Russian passport. The judge has now been charged with illegal deportation.

Ірина Глухова