Finnish court denies Ukraine's extradition request for Russian neo-Nazi war criminal
Russian war criminal, neo-Nazi Voislav Torden (Photo: Giovanni_Pigni)
The Supreme Court of Finland has denied Ukraine's request for extradition of the Russian war criminal of the Rusich sabotage and assault reconnaissance group, neo-Nazi Voislav Torden (Yan Petrovsky), and ordered his release. The reason for this decision was called inadequate conditions of detention in places of detention, according to Helsingin Sanomat.
Voislav Torden is a Russian suspected of war crimes in Ukraine. He was able to enter Finland using a new name and was detained by the Finnish police.
"In the opinion of the Supreme Court, Finland cannot agree to extradite the Russian suspect Voislav Torden to Ukraine," the statement says.
The reason for this decision was the allegedly inadequate conditions in Ukrainian prisons following the Third Article of Human Rights.
"The European Court of Human Rights recognized as particularly problematic the overcrowding of Ukrainian prisons and various repeated material deficiencies that occurred in several prisons throughout the country," the agency notes, citing the conclusions of the decision.
The Finnish Supreme Court believes that Torden will allegedly face "degrading treatment" if he is extradited to Ukraine.
In its decision, the Finnish judiciary refers to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as to a recent similar decision of the Swedish Supreme Court and the report that formed its basis.
Based on this, the Finnish Supreme Court ruled that "there are no longer any grounds for keeping Torden in custody" to ensure his possible extradition, and ordered his immediate release if there were no other grounds for his imprisonment.
Detention of Torden (Petrovsky) in Finland
The Russian militant was detained by Finnish police on August 25. The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine announced that it wants to extradite him. Voislav Torden (Yan Petrovsky) is the leader and commander of the Russian paramilitary group Rusich Operative Group. He was known for his connections in far-right circles, and Torden also fought on the side of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
At the end of August, it became known that Torden had asked to be extradited to Russia.
