Ukraine's Security Service has opened criminal proceedings into crimes against humanity, an adviser to the SBU chief, Markiyan Lubkivsky, has said.
According to the SBU press center, criminal proceeding were opened under Article 438 of the Criminal Code (violation of laws or customs of war) based on Article 2 of the law on the Security Service of Ukraine and evidence by numerous witnesses and the exposed actual evidence of the crimes against the peace and security of mankind committed by the terrorists organizations – so-called Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics.
According to the report, the crimes involve the ill-treatment of civilians and captured soldiers, which manifested itself in the use of torture on servicemen and civilians, use of civilians for forced labor, seizure of national valuables in the occupied territory.
“The SBU invites Ukrainian and international experts, primarily legislators, to join this hard work, which should result in filing an application in international legal institutions and the condemnation of specific perpetrators of the crimes,” Lubkivsky said.
A pre-trial investigation is conducted as part of the criminal proceedings. The perpetrators of these crimes are facing from eight to ten years of imprisonment, and in the case of involvement in a premeditated murder up to fifteen years or life imprisonment, the SBU said.
The press center also recalled that on Oct. 3 the SBU published a map dubbed “Crimes against Humanity in Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts”, which marked 26 locations of prisons, torture chambers, concentration camps established by militants, sites of torture, executions, and mass graves of civilians. The work on this map continues.
