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The U.N. human rights office says Russia and its armed allies in Ukraine's Donetsk region are planning to put Ukrainian prisoners of war on trial, which could amount to a war crime.
The trials reportedly could take place in coming days in Ukraine's port city of Mariupol. The U.N. rights agency expressed concern that POWs charged with a crime will not receive due process and guarantees of a fair trial to which they are entitled.
U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said under international law, POWs have combatant immunity. She said they cannot be prosecuted for having participated in hostilities or for having committed lawful acts during an armed conflict.
"No sentence or punishment may be passed on them unless it is delivered by an impartial and regularly constituted court," Shamdasani said. "We recall that international humanitarian law prohibits the establishment of courts solely to judge prisoners of war and that willfully depriving a prisoner of war of the rights of fair and regular trial amounts to a war crime."
Shamdasani called Russian authorities' refusal to grant independent monitors confidential access to prisoners of war very worrying. She says that leaves POWs open to torture to extract confessions from them.
"And, of course, we are very concerned that there are these photos and video footage that are emerging of cages being built in Mariupol's Philharmonic Hall to put on show these prisoners of war, which is of course, humiliating as well," Shamdasani said.
She said the construction of cages, coupled with inflammatory public statements by high-level Russian officials and members of affiliated armed groups are also cause for concern. She says statements labeling Ukrainian POWs war criminals, Nazis, and terrorists undermine the presumption of innocence before trials have taken place.