Russian embassy says contact with defense of Russian Torden accused by Finland

The Russian embassy is in contact with the lawyers of Russian Voislav Torden (Yan Petrovskyy), who is accused in Finland of alleged "war crimes" in Ukraine. This was announced by the press service of the diplomatic mission at the end of the last hearing of his case in a Helsinki court on January 31.

The Russian will be sentenced on March 7. Diplomats expressed hope that the judges will come to an acquittal verdict, as there is no sufficient evidence in the case of Torden.

"From the moment of V. Torden's detention until now, the Russian Embassy staff has been in constant contact with the detainee's lawyers, as well as repeatedly visited him in prison, monitoring the conditions of detention and the presence of complaints. We are constantly monitoring the development of the situation," RIA Novosti quoted the diplomatic mission's statement as saying.

The diplomats also warned against the atmosphere of Russophobia in Finland to avoid politicized influence on the court decisions and leave them unbiased. The embassy recalled that at the trial Torden declared his non-involvement in the crimes imputed to him and expressed confidence that after his testimony the court would conclude that the charges were false.

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Law enforcers informed the Russian Embassy in Finland of Torden's detention at Kiev's request on August 25, 2023. On the same day, Moscow sent Helsinki a request for a meeting with the detainee. The next day, the Russian Embassy in Finland said that the Russian citizen was detained by the Finnish Border Guard Service due to suspicions that he had violated Finnish migration laws. He was detained on July 20 when the Russian tried to fly to Nice from Helsinki-Vantaa airport.

At the end of January 2024, the Finnish prosecutor's office demanded a suspended sentence for the Russian for violating the EU travel ban. Ukraine asked Finland to transfer Torden to it, but was refused. In February, Torden was found guilty of violating the ban on entry to the Schengen zone. In late October, Finnish prosecutors filed charges against Torden that could see him face at least eight years in prison.

Afterward, in early December, prosecutors in Finland asked that Thorden be sentenced to life in prison for alleged war crimes in eastern Ukraine in 2014. The Russian's extraordinary trial was held at the Helsinki District Court. Prosecutors have brought charges against him for five war crimes. One of the counts accuses him of participating in the killing of more than 20 Ukrainian military personnel. The Russian lawyer Heikki Lampela said that his client would deny all the charges.