\n Finnish officials said on Friday police suspected a Russian citizen of committing war crimes in Ukraine in 2014 and he was expected to face charges before the end of the month.\n<\/p>\n
\n Vojislav Torden -- a commander of the Russian far-right, neo-Nazi paramilitary Rusich group -- was detained at Helsinki airport in July 2023.\n<\/p>\n
\n Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said it had completed a investigation into several offences dating back to 2014 and suspected Torden of several war crimes, including an \"aggravated war crime\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The suspected crimes took place in autumn 2014 in eastern Ukraine\", Detective Superintendent Olli Toyras told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n Toyras, who led the investigation, said he could not reveal further details about the location or nature of the acts.\n<\/p>\n
\n Finland's supreme court ruled that Torden, formerly known as Yan Petrovsky, could not be extradited to Ukraine due to the risk of him suffering inhumane conditions in prison there.\n<\/p>\n
\n The investigation, which the NBI launched in December 2023, was carried out in close cooperation with the Ukrainian prosecutor and security services.\n<\/p>\n
\n Also involved were, Europol, the International Criminal Court and Eurojust -- the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation.\n<\/p>\n
\n Toyras said hearings had been conducted in both Ukraine and Finland.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The police has closed this case and now the next phase is that the prosecutors will decide if they want to prosecute Torden\", Toyras explained.\n<\/p>\n
\n Prosecutors have until October 31 to bring charges.\n<\/p>\n
\n Jukka Rappe, Deputy Prosecutor General, told AFP: \"Two prosecutors are preparing that indictment. It's possible that a solution can be reached within that timeframe.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Finland has adopted \"universal jurisdiction\", meaning it can bring charges on its soil for suspected crimes committed anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Finnish officials said on Friday police suspected a Russian citizen of committing war crimes in Ukraine in 2014 and he was expected to face charges before the end of the month. Vojislav Torden -- a commander of the Russian far-right, neo-Nazi paramilitary Rusich group -- was detained at Helsinki airport in July 2023. Finland's National […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-137001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n