A citizen of Ukraine filed a lawsuit with the Federal Court of Argentina to investigate the torture he suffered in Russian captivity in the occupied territory of Ukraine.
A Ukrainian sued because of torture in Russian captivity
Reuters reports that in the statement, the man accuses a number of identified individuals of electrocuting and illegally imprisoning him as a form of torture in mid-to-late 2022.
The man asked Reuters not to be named out of fear for his family, who are still in the occupied territory.
The complaint is filed against the people who tortured him, the officials who ran the prison where he was held, and his supervisor, whom he accuses of abetting the ill-treatment.
I was detained at work. Then they tortured me. An electric shock was applied. It was incredibly painful, so I passed out. I was lucky to survive. Many people are still there, he told Reuters in an interview in Buenos Aires before filing the statement.
The case was brought by the husband's legal team and Ukrainian non-governmental organization The Reckoning Project members.
The nearly 70-page legal complaint includes testimony from other detainees at the same detention facility that corroborate the allegations, as well as findings from UN experts on similar torture practices at the site, including the one in question.
The complaint alleges electrical cables attached to the man's ear and finger. He and others were kept in cells with an area of 10 square meters, with 12-20 people in each cell.
Ibrahim Olabi, the lead legal counsel in the case, said the man was interrogated and tortured for about 20 days. Later, he was released without charge, and he managed to escape to the unoccupied territory of Ukraine.
Why was the lawsuit filed in Argentina?
Argentina's constitution allows courts to try international crimes, including crimes against humanity and war crimes, regardless of where they were committed.
The Argentine court must now decide whether to accept the appeal. A decision could potentially take months.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office has registered more than 126,000 cases of war crimes after the invasion of Russia in February 2022.
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