On Tuesday, the Justice Department revealed charges against four Russian fighters for committing war crimes against a U.S. national.
While announcing the charges, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the “Justice Department has filed the first-ever charges under the U.S. war crimes statute against four Russia-affiliated military personnel for heinous crimes against an American citizen” through an indictment returned in the Eastern District of Virginia.
The charges include conspiracy to commit war crimes, including war crimes outlawed by the international community after World War Two, unlawful confinement, torture, and inhuman treatment.
“On Feb. 24, 2022, Russia commenced its full scale unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” Garland said. “In the nearly two years since, we have all seen invading Russian forces commit atrocities on the larger scale in any European armed conflict since the Second World War, we have all heard the accounts of Ukrainian civilians targeted and executed. Ukrainian children forcibly deported, and Ukrainian women and girls sexually assaulted. And as the world has witnessed the horrors of Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine, so has the United States Department of Justice.”
The indictment charges Suren Seiranovich Mkrtchyan, 45, Dmitry Budnik, Valerii LNU (last name unknown), and Nazar LNU in connection with their unlawful detainment of a U.S. national in the context of the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The defendants are alleged to have interrogated and tortured the victim. They also allegedly threatened to kill the victim and conducted a mock execution.
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