Hearing on Ukraine’s first war crime conviction is postponed

Russian army Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin, 21, is seen behind a glass during a court hearing in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, July 25, 2022. Kyiv Appeal court has started to consider an appeal on a life sentence for Shishimarin after he was sentenced for the killing of a 62-year-old man who was shot in the head in a village in the northeastern Sumy region in the opening days of the war. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
Russian army Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin, 21, is seen behind a glass during a court hearing in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, July 25, 2022. Kyiv Appeal court has started to consider an appeal on a life sentence for Shishimarin after he was sentenced for the killing of a 62-year-old man who was shot in the head in a village in the northeastern Sumy region in the opening days of the war. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)

KYIV -- The appeal of Ukraine's first war crimes conviction was adjourned on Monday, as prosecutors keep pushing to hold Russia legally accountable for atrocities even as fighting rages in the south and east of the country.

Thin and subdued, Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old captured Russian soldier who pleaded guilty to killing a civilian and was sentenced in May by a Ukrainian court to life in prison, sat in a glass box in the courtroom as he faced news cameras. The hearing was postponed until Friday due to his lawyer's ill health.

Around Ukraine's capital region, where Russian forces pulled out four months ago, much of the work of documenting crime scenes and interviewing witnesses has been done. Now a new, more difficult phase in the search for accountability is underway: Finding those responsible.

"While conducting searches in the previously occupied region, we regularly find documents, passports and lists with names of participants of the units, with their complete data, including sites of birth and dates of births," Andrii Nebytov, head of the Kyiv regional police, told reporters. "All of this information is being transferred to the relevant law enforcement. The investigators are working with the victims, trying to identify the people who committed crimes against them."

Shishimarin's case is unusual in that Ukrainian authorities quickly found evidence to link him with the shooting of a 62-year-old man in the northeastern Sumy region on Feb. 28. That's not the case for most war crimes cases now under investigation.

Ukrainian prosecutors have registered over 20,100 potential war crimes, and police in the Kyiv region have exhumed more than 1,300 bodies.

But as of July, prosecutors in Ukraine have only been able to identify 127 suspects, according to the prosecutor general's office. Fifteen of them are currently in Ukraine as prisoners of war while the rest remain at large. Those suspects include three accused of sexual violence and 64 accused of willful killing or ill-treatment of civilians.

Shishimarin is one of 10 people to face war crimes trials so far in Ukraine, in cases involving indiscriminate shelling, wilful killing, sexual violence, robbery, ill-treatment of civilians and attacks on civilian objects. Six have been convicted, according to the prosecutor general's office.

Ukraine's top prosecutors have long argued for speedy trials -- in part to meet a seething public hunger for justice -- even as they work to maintain judicial standards that will satisfy domestic watchdogs and allies in the U.S. and Europe.

The prosecutor general behind this effort, Iryna Venediktova, was dismissed last week along with the former chief of Ukraine's SBU security service, Ivan Bakanov, for reportedly not doing enough to tackle "collaborators and traitors" in their departments. Her replacement is expected to be announced shortly.

RUSSIA DETAINS POLITICIAN

The Russian authorities on Monday briefly detained a 72-year-old liberal politician who recently returned to Moscow from abroad, the latest move in a relentless crackdown on dissent amid Moscow's military action in Ukraine.

Leonid Gozman was detained after the Russian Interior Ministry issued a warrant for his arrest while investigating a criminal case against him.

Gozman has been accused of breaching the law that requires Russian citizens to notify authorities about a foreign citizenship or a residency permit. If found guilty, Gozman could be sentenced to a fine or community work.

Gozman notified the authorities about his Israeli citizenship but they claimed that he failed to do so within required time.

Gozman, a vocal critic of the Kremlin's campaign in Ukraine, left Russia when it started but returned in June in what he has described as a "moral" choice.

The Russian Justice Ministry has listed him as a "foreign agent," a description that carries a strong pejorative meaning and implies additional government scrutiny.

Immediately after meeting with investigators Monday, Gozman was detained on the Moscow subway by police who told him he was on the federal arrest warrant. The politician was later released, but the criminal case against him is still pending.

Speaking after being released Monday, Gozman said the authorities issued a warrant for his arrest after he hadn't responded to summons that have been sent to his old address. He added that he fears being handed a prison term.

"I'm 72. Russian prison is not for my age. I won't survive it," he said.

Still, Gozman said he doesn't want to leave.

"Our country is conducting horrible foreign and domestic policies," he said. "But it's our country, we have been born and brought up here. My wife and I, we have done a lot for the country, and we don't want to leave."

Information for this article was contributed by Oleksandr Stashevskyi and staff writers of The Associated Press along with Tom Jennings and Annie Wong of PBS Frontline.

  photo  Russian army Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin, 21, is seen behind a glass during a court hearing in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, July 25, 2022. Kyiv Appeal court has started to consider an appeal on a life sentence for Shishimarin after he was sentenced for the killing of a 62-year-old man who was shot in the head in a village in the northeastern Sumy region in the opening days of the war. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
 
 

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