In Helsinki this winter‚ a ground-breaking trial started against Yan Petrovsky (also known as Voislav Torden) who was caught last year trying to enter France with fake papers
The 37-year old Russian faces serious charges from events that happened in east Ukraine about 10 years ago: he led a pro-russian group called Rusich (which worked with wagner mercenaries) and did really bad things to Ukrainian soldiers
- Used fake Ukrainian flag to trick soldiers
- Killed 22 people and hurt 4 more
- Did cruel things to wounded people
- Made photos and videos of their actions
The main event happened on sept 5th 2014‚ when his group set-up a trap on a road-block - they used Ukraines flag to fool approaching soldiers; then attacked them. The prosecutors say they didnt just kill people but also hurt those who were already down
Evil must be punished. I want this spread of evil to be stopped
Petrovsky got EU and US penalties about 2 years ago but says he didnt do these things (his lawyer told this to the court). After Finland caught him‚ Ukraine wanted him back - but Finlands top court said no. The trial will go until next month‚ with people from Ukraine joining through video-calls