A Catholic priest investigating the Holocaust for 20 years to document Russia's crimes

20.04.2022, 17:31
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A Catholic priest investigating the Holocaust for 20 years to document Russia's crimes - фото 1
President and founder of Yahad-In Unum, Roman Catholic priest Patrick Debois, who spent 20 years investigating the crimes of the Nazis and ISIS terrorists, has begun documenting Russia's war crimes in Ukraine.

This is reported by Ukrayinska Pravda.

The priest is looking for witnesses in Ukraine who can tell about the crimes of the Russian occupiers – a special website has been created for this purpose.

With the help of this platform, eyewitnesses of Russian crimes will be able to give investigators interviews.

"First-person testimony is the most important evidence for the court. If you know people who witnessed Russia's war crimes in Bucha, Kharkiv, Mariupol and throughout Ukraine (shelling of peaceful neighborhoods, destruction of civilian infrastructure), spread this information for them in order to collect as much evidence of Russian crimes as possible," Yahad-in Unum notes.

You can sign up for an interview:

- on the website by following the link;

via email [email protected];

or by phone +38 098 943 1217, +38 067 332 5188.

Researchers will collect evidence of mass murders and destruction of civilian infrastructure in Bucha, Mariupol, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and other cities of Ukraine.

These testimonies will be submitted to the International Criminal Court and prosecutor's offices of European countries.

Video interviews will be conducted in Zoom with the participation of Ukrainian volunteers in Ukrainian or Russian, and then they will be translated into English.

Investigators will also work with topographic maps, identify and record exact crime scenes.

"This is important because the testimonies collected by non-government and independent organizations have the greatest weight for the International Court of Justice and prosecutor's offices of European countries," they note.

The French organization Yahad-In Unum, founded by Patrick Debois, has been investigating the Holocaust in Eastern Europe since 2002.

Over the past 20 years, researchers have discovered more than 3 thousand murder sites of Jews and Roma.

Since 2015, Yahad-In Unum has also been investigating mass crimes in Guatemala, Iraq and Syria.

Based on the evidence collected by the researchers, 8 criminal investigations against former ISIS members have begun in Belgium.

And in Germany, thanks to evidence from Yahad-In Unum, an ISIS representative was convicted for the first time in history for crimes against humanity committed on the grounds of religion.