Moscow, May 18 (Interfax) - Two prominent Russian human rights activists, in interviews with Interfax, expressed support for a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights on Monday that upheld a war crimes charge brought by a Latvian court against a man who commanded a Soviet partisan group in Latvia during World War II.
"I trust the judges of the European Court. They make a very serious analysis of every case. I believe they have made a just decision," Lyudmila Alexeyeva, leader of the Moscow Helsinki Group, said in a comment on the Strasbourg-based court’s ruling on the case of Vasily Kononov, who lives in Latvia.
Yan Rachinsky, one of the leaders of Russian educational and human rights organization Memorial, dismissed criticism of the ruling from Russian officials.
"It appears to be an extremely erroneous point of view that this decision means some kind of departure from pan-European values or, moreover, from assessments by the Nuremberg tribunal. Or that it means revising the results of war," he said.
"The ruling of the Strasbourg court on the case of Vasily Kononov means that war crimes are not to be forgiven no matter who has committed them. And that statutes of limitations don’t apply to them either. One may have fought the enemy heroically and deserves complete respect for this, but if in the course of this fight one has committed a crime against civilians, none of one’s battlefield heroism can justify these crimes," Rachinsky said.
"Of course, it is a court that must decide whether one’s actions were criminal. From the point of view of law, civilians must be protected from actions by either of the warring parties regardless of which one becomes the winner afterward. And it is the phrase ‘winners are not judged,’ which some use in trying to justify Kononov’s actions, that appears to represent a departure from basic principles of modern civilization," Rachinsky said.
Latvia has accused Kononov of murdering civilians on its territory during the war.
