INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Finnish prosecutors on Thursday pushed charges against Russian nationalist fighter Vojislav Torden, accusing him of having actually devoted
war criminal offenses in eastern Ukraine in 2014
Torden, formerly called Yan Petrovsky, was detained at Helsinki Airport in July 2023 on suspicion of committing terror crimes in Ukraine
In February, a Finnish court handed him a suspended prison sentence of 40 days on separate charges of breaking EU sanctions by getting in
the nation under an alias.Ukrainian authorities have sought Tordens arrest given that 2016, accusing him of helping pro-Moscow rebels in
eastern Ukraine as a member of the reactionary militant group Rusich in between 2014 and 2015
Finlands Supreme Court earlier refused to extradite him to Ukraine.On Thursday, prosecutors in the Nordic country revealed they were
charging Torden with having dedicated 5 war criminal activities in eastern Ukraine
According to them, those criminal activities caused the deaths of 22 Ukrainian soldiers and the injury of four others.In three of the cases
Ukrainian soldiers were eliminated or injured and the 2 other charges have to do with some other kind of breach of the laws of war, Deputy
Prosecutor General Jukka Rappe informed AFP.Finlands National Prosecution Authority stated in a statement the charges were also associated
with actions contrary to the laws of war ..
and the treatment of injured and killed enemy soldiers
Torden has rejected the allegations.According to Finnish state media, the case against Torden marks thefirst timesomeone in the Nordic
country has been charged with war criminal offenses dedicated in Ukraine.Earlier this month, Finlands National Bureau of Investigation
completed an extensive probe, which was introduced last December, accusing Torden of several war criminal offenses in the fall of 2014 in
eastern Ukraine.That examination involved close cooperation with Ukrainian district attorneys and security services, along with Europol, the
International Criminal Court and Eurojust the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation.Finland recognizes what is called
universal jurisdiction, a legal principle permitting it to bring charges on its soil for thought crimes dedicated anywhere in the world.A
date for the trial has yet to be set, however Deputy Prosecutor Rappe stated he expects it to begin in November.AFP contributed reporting.
