A Finnish court on Friday sentenced Russian ultranationalist Vojislav Torden to life in prison for war crimes committed in Ukraine in 2014, including the brutal mutilation of a wounded Ukrainian soldier.
The Helsinki District Court found Torden, a commander in the Russian far right paramilitary group Rusich, guilty of four war crimes in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine.
Prosecutors accused Torden, who previously went by the name Yan Petrovsky, of five war crimes, including responsibility for an ambush that led to the deaths of 22 Ukrainian soldiers. However, the court dismissed the main charge, ruling that the prosecution had not provided sufficient evidence to prove that Rusich and Torden had organised and carried out the attack.
“It has not been possible to conclude from the evidence that the Rusich unit or group was specifically responsible for organising and carrying out the ambush and arson attack in all respects,” the court stated.
Despite this, Torden was convicted of leading Rusich fighters at the scene after the ambush and of killing a wounded soldier. He was also found guilty of ordering his fighters to carve Rusich’s symbol—a kolovrat, or “spoked wheel”—into the cheek of another injured soldier, Ivan Issyk, who later died from his wounds.
The kolovrat is commonly used by ultranationalist and neo Nazi groups in Russia and Eastern Europe.
Additionally, the court ruled that Torden took and shared degrading photographs of a fallen soldier on social media.
Finland applies the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows it to prosecute individuals for serious crimes committed anywhere in the world.
