SAINT-PETERSBURG, May 27 (RAPSI) - Canadian officials have refused to extradite Vladimir Katryuk who allegedly participated in the massacre in the Belarusian village of Khatyn during World War II, Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Zvyagintsev announced at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum on Wednesday.

Zvyagintsev added that Katryuk was exonerated from all charges by Canada. Therefore, the country has ignored the principle “extradite or prosecute.”

Earlier, the official spokesman for the Investigative committee, Vladimir Markin, announced that Russian investigators opened a case against Katryuk. Russia, as a successor of the Soviet Union, took up the obligation to prosecute Nazi war criminals and will continue to insist on Katryuk’s extradition, Markin said.

In March 1943, Nazi collaborators massacred the entire population of Khatyn, or 149 civilians, including 75 children and minors. They also destroyed all residential buildings. The Investigative Committee representative specified that there is no statute of limitation for war crimes, according to the Charter of the Nurnberg international Military Tribunal of August 8, 1945.