In July, the occupying “authority” reported the death of a volunteer, allegedly due to illness and stress, but there are signs of bodily injuries on his body.

The Office of the Attorney General has opened criminal proceedings on the fact of the possible torture and murder of British volunteer Paul Ury.

According to an UNIAN correspondent, Prosecutor General Andrey Kostin announced this at a briefing.

According to him, a pre-trial investigation has been launched today.

“It has been preliminary established that in April, while carrying out volunteer activities during the evacuation of the civilian population on the territory of the Zaporozhye region, a volunteer was illegally seized by servicemen of the Russian armed formations, deprived of liberty and forcibly transported to the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk region,” the Prosecutor General noted.

He recalled that in July, the occupying “power” reported the death of a volunteer, allegedly due to illness and stress.

Kostin said that only after more than 1.5 months of negotiations did the Russian side return the body of the murdered volunteer to Ukraine.

“There are signs of bodily injury on the body of the volunteer, which may indicate ill-treatment, which could be the real cause of his death. The body … was stored in improper conditions and is in a mutilated state, so the real causes of death and bodily injuries will be established after a forensic medical examination,” he said.

The Prosecutor General also stressed that he would personally supervise the progress of the investigation.

He added that representatives of the UK, with whom Ukraine is in contact, are also participating in the investigation.

Kostin also clarified that there is reason to believe that the deceased volunteer may not have received the necessary assistance, in particular medical, and he was kept in inadequate conditions.

“Perhaps this was the cause of death …”, – added the head of the OGPU.

As the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights Dmitry Lubinets emphasized  , the forensic medical examination will finally confirm the cause of Paul Ury’s death, all the necessary reports have been made, and the British Embassy in Ukraine has also been duly informed.

“After more than 1.5 months of negotiations, the Russian Federation returned the body of the murdered British volunteer Paul Ury, who was illegally held hostage in temporarily occupied Donetsk from April to July 2022, through proxy-state formations – the so-called “DPR” -. In July 2022, we we saw the statements of Russian propagandists about the death of Paul Ury “due to illness and stress”, and today they received a mutilated body on September 7, 2022. As the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights, today I can responsibly say that such a death was violent. A person simply cannot endure such torture. I saw a photo of the body of the deceased and anyone who sees this will have no doubts,” Lubinets said.

According to him, the murder of Paul Ury due to torture is a war crime, which will be another proof during the tribunal over the Russian political and military leadership. Evidence in the tribunal for Putin.

“The Russian Federation once again shows its cannibalistic face. Every day, thousands of civilians who are illegally held hostage by Russia in the temporarily occupied territories are subjected to torture and under the threat of extrajudicial executions. According to the Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilian Population in time of war, it is forbidden to take civilians hostage to injure, ill-treat, torture, harass, civilians must also have access to medical care, including the possibility of visiting them by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and providing them with humanitarian assistance and medicines. The Russian Federation does not adhere to any of the rules of the civilized world that it has signed,” he said.

The British Paul Urey and Dylan Healy were captured by the Russian military at the end of April 2022 near Dneprorudny in the Zaporozhye region when they carried out their activities as volunteers involved in the evacuation of exclusively civilians from the zone of active hostilities.

Dylan Gill has not yet been released and is “accused” of mercenarism by the so-called “DNR”, along with four other foreigners – Andrew Hill and John Harding from the UK, Vekoslav Prebig from Croatia and Matias Gustavsson from Sweden.

“The Office of the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights and the National Information Bureau had all the necessary information about Paul Ury. The Ukrainian side has repeatedly stressed the obligation of the Russian Federation to release all illegally detained civilians. At the same time, the Russian Federation has used and continues to use the quasi-state formations of the so-called “DNR” and “LNR” to blackmail Ukraine’s partners in the world, forcing them to negotiate the release of citizens not with the political leadership in the Kremlin, but with their puppets in Donetsk or Luhansk.As the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights, I express my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Paul Ury Ukrainians will never forget everyone,who stood by to help our country in the fight against Russian aggression as a civilian volunteer or a military volunteer,” Lubinets assured.

(C)UNIAN 2022