32-year-old Czech national Martin Kantor has been sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for fighting on the side of the Russian and pro-Russian Donbas militants. The trial before the Prague Municipal Court was in absentia, but is important both as a clear deterrent to others, and because Kantor was found guilty on June 1 of terrorism and involvement in a terrorist organization. It is not the first trial of pro-Russian Czech fighters, and judging by the recent arrest of five other individuals on terrorist charges, is unlikely to be the last. In the case brought by Ukraine against Russia at the European Court of Justice on violations of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, Russia’s lawyers have tried to deny Ukraine’s position that the self-proclaimed and separatist-held territories in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts are terrorist formations. It is a position that court trials in the United Kingdom and Czech Republic, and the Estonian authorities are unequivocally rejecting.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
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Halya Coynash: Czech fighter gets 20 years on terrorism charges
Pro-Russian militants hold Russia's flag as they pose for a picture at their check-point in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk on June 15, 2016.
