(Bloomberg) — Russia has committed torture, ill-treatment and countless other human rights violations against Ukrainian nationals since it occupied Crimea in 2014, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.
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There were 43 cases of disappearances or abductions and the forcible transfer of about 12,500 Crimean prisoners to Russian territory between 2014 and 2018, the Strasbourg court said on Tuesday.
Their abuse included ‘arbitrary arrests and detention’ and ‘torture’. Victims “were held incommunicado, tied up blindfolded, beaten” and electrocuted, the court said, citing a report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Allegations of wrongdoing by Russia have been widespread since its forces first occupied Crimea in 2014, but Tuesday’s verdict is one of the first convictions by an international court since then. The conflict between the two countries has worsened with Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, prompting new accusations of atrocities by Russian forces.
The court ruled that Russia must take steps to ensure the safe return to Crimea of the prisoners transferred to Russia. However, these and other court-ordered steps remain essentially unenforceable since Russia left the Council of Europe and the ECHR in 2022, shortly after the invasion.
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