Almost 4,000 men from Mariupol held in ‘filtration camps’ in occupied Donbas, says human rights ombudsperson
Russia's war against Ukraine – the main events of May 21
According to her, the people there are put up in terrible conditions: they sleep on the floor, in stuffy rooms and in unsanitary conditions. They are tortured and abused, she writes.
She stressed that hostage-taking and torture constitute acts of terrorism under the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism and war crimes under Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Russian “filtration camps” are intended to “filter” Ukrainian citizens loyal to Moscow from those who aren’t, and have been widely used to process Ukrainians forcibly abducted by Russian troops in occupied or contested territories. These camps violate numerous international conventions, and are considered to evidence of Russian human rights abuses.