The garrison military court in Russia considered the first case of a captured citizen of Ukraine, a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Nikita Shkryabin. According to Pavel Chikov, the head of Agora, lawyers are not allowed to see Shkryabin and other Ukrainian prisoners of war and their whereabouts are not given, since, according to the court, they do not have any procedural rights.
Shkryabin was taken prisoner during the fighting on March 29, 2022. Since then, it has been at the disposal of the department at an unspecified location.
Shkryabin's lawyer, Leonid Solovyov, was confirmed in August that his client had been deprived of liberty "in connection with the opposition to a special military operation." He was not allowed to meet with him, his whereabouts and the procedural grounds for detaining him were not reported, referring to "information of limited distribution." At the same time, the Ministry of Defense does not recognize Shkryabin as a prisoner of war.
The lawyer filed a complaint about the crime of unidentified servicemen of the Russian army, who are holding his client, to the military investigation department of the Investigative Committee. The department refused to conduct an audit.
Then Solovyov filed a complaint with the garrison military court, which recognized the inaction of the military investigation as legal. The court found that Shkryabin was detained for "illegal actions", but is not a defendant in any criminal cases and is not being prosecuted. Therefore, according to the court, he does not have any procedural rights, including to a lawyer.
In total, according to various estimates, several thousand Ukrainian prisoners are being held in Russia, Chikov writes. “The location of most of them is unknown. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, at the request of Russian lawyers, confirms the fact of detaining specific individuals, and also reports on the state of health. Information about the specific location is not reported, and access to them is prohibited, ”he notes.