Kept in slavery for half a year: occupiers will be tried for torture in Mykolaiv region

In Mykolaiv region, two Russian occupiers held civilians in slavery for six months, torturing and abusing them. Law enforcement officers have now taken the case to court.

This was reported by the press service of the National Police in Mykolaiv region.

The police of Mykolaiv region have completed a pre-trial investigation against two Russian military servicemen who ill-treated residents of one of the temporarily occupied villages in Bashtanka district and seized their property.

During the pre-trial investigation, police officers from the Department for Investigation of Crimes in the Armed Conflict Zone, with the participation of experts from the Criminal Analysis Department of the regional headquarters, found that in April 2022, two Russian servicemen - a tank commander and a tank driver of the 205th separate motorized rifle Cossack brigade - intentionally, by prior conspiracy, used violence against a local resident.

They beat him in the torso with the butt of a rifle, extinguished cigarette butts on his hand, and for six months forced him to load and unload grain with his bare hands, without any tools. In August of the same year, one of the occupants, in the presence of another, inflicted bodily injuries on another man: abrasions on his face and a broken rib, because he had witnessed the torture.

In September last year, investigators notified both soldiers in absentia of suspicion of ill-treatment of civilians by prior conspiracy.

Further investigation revealed a number of other crimes: in April, one of the defendants fired over the head of a civilian, threatening to kill him, and in May, another illegally entered a local resident's garage and took possession of his trailer without any military justification.

The investigation is now complete, and the criminal proceedings have been transferred to the prosecutor's office, which has sent the indictment to court for consideration on the merits. The defendants face up to 12 years in prison for their crimes, and the final decision will be made by the court.

Two Russian soldiers were also sentenced to prison terms for crimes against civilians in Mykolaiv region. The crimes of the defendants were not limited to torture - during one of the episodes, the Russian military committed the intentional murder of a civilian

Анна Бальчінос