Ukraine extradites Russian soldier who tortured Lithuanian - SBU
Agents of the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Prosecutor General's Office and the National Police have handed over to the Republic of Lithuania a Russian serviceman suspected of war crimes, the SBU has said. .
"According to the case materials, the defendant tortured prisoners, and among the victims of his actions was a Lithuanian citizen who was engaged in volunteering in Ukraine. The extradition took place based on the materials of a joint investigation of the Security Service, the Prosecutor General's Office and the National Police," the SBU said on Telegram on Friday.
According to the materials of the proceedings, the detained occupier is a citizen of the aggressor country, Margen Gadzhimagomedov, an inspector of the military police of the 177th separate marine regiment of the Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Federation. According to the case materials, he tortured prisoners who were in a prison set up by the enemy on the territory of the temporarily occupied airfield in Melitopol, Zaporizhia.
Among the victims of his actions was a volunteer from Lithuania who had been assisting the Ukrainian Defense Forces since the first days of the full-scale war.
"As the investigation established, various tortures were applied to the prisoners in the barracks: they were kept in safes, strangled to unconsciousness, hung by tied hands, doused with cold water in the cold and tortured with electricity," the report states.
Ukrainian defenders captured the occupier during battles in the Robotyne area in August 2024.
Based on materials from SBU investigators and foreign partners, the Vilnius City Court recognized the defendant as a suspect in violation of the Geneva Conventions, laws and customs of war in accordance with Articles 100 and 103 (Part 1) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania.
At the request of the Prosecutor General's Office of Lithuania, in late October, Ukraine carried out the extradition procedure for the suspect to bring him to justice.
"This is the first time since the start of a full-scale war that our state has extradited a detained Russian serviceman to another foreign state," said Brigadier General Serhiy Naumyuk, Deputy Head of the Security Service of Ukraine.
Deputy Prosecutor General of Lithuania Gintas Ivanauskas thanked his colleagues from the Security Service of Ukraine for their significant contribution to this investigation.
"According to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania, war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war committed through torture and unlawful deprivation of liberty are punishable by imprisonment for a term of 10 to 20 years or life imprisonment. Therefore, I would like to thank my colleagues from the Security Service of Ukraine for their significant contribution to this investigation," the SBU said.