INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russian military courts sentenced more than 1,000 individuals on terrorist charges last year, President Vladimir Putin stated Thursday,
referring to an enormous wave of prosecutions throughout the Ukraine war.Russias secretive military courts prosecute captured Ukrainian
soldiers, Russians implicated of working with Kyiv or messing up Moscows army, domestic challengers of the Kremlin and alleged radicals and
Military courts have a crucial role in choosing criminal cases with a terrorist instructions, Putin stated in a speech to Russias leading
Last year, around 950 such cases were taken a look at, 1,075 people were sentenced
Russia frequently sentences individuals over opposition to the war in Ukraine while founding guilty captured Ukrainian soldiers on treason
and terrorist charges.The Geneva Conventions prohibit the prosecution of detainees of war (POW) for taking part in armed hostilities.Moscow
has also magnified its targeting of alleged jihadist cells because the March 2024 massacre at a Moscow auditorium that killed 145 people an
attack declared by the Islamic State.The crackdown at home is of a scale not seen considering that the Soviet era.The OVD-Info rights group
says 1,184 people have been prosecuted in Russia for their opposition to the Ukraine conflict-- consisting of 258 for justifying terrorism
and 58 for acts of terrorism
The Memorial rights group states Russia has 868 political prisoners, though its co-founder Oleg Orlov informed AFP in 2015 there were a lot
more that campaigners did not know about.Jailed for discrediting Russias Armed Forces, he was then released in a prisoner exchange with
the United States.Putin on Thursday applauded Russias judges for their dedication in supervising the ballooning caseload.He said Russia
had produced 100 courts and appointed 570 judges in occupied parts of eastern Ukraine, where Moscow has jailed an unidentified number of
Ukrainians for opposing Moscows military offensive
They are completely incorporated in the joined Russian judicial system, Russias Supreme Court chief Irina Podnosova informed Putin.She
stated military courts had seen a steep rise in total cases throughout the Ukraine invasion
In 2024, they took a look at 18,000 criminal [cases], 13,000 administrative [cases] and 9,000 civilian [cases], she added.Little is known
of the fate of Ukrainians sentenced by Russian-installed courts in the 4 Ukrainian areas Russia annexed in 2022 Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk
and Zaporizhzhia.Russian courts are known for their low acquittal rates.
