MOSCOW, July 7 (RAPSI) – The Supreme Court of Crimea has recognized the massacres of civilians committed by the Nazis on the peninsula during the Great Patriotic War as genocide, RAPSI has learnt from the Prosecutor General’s Office.

The court has granted a relevant motion lodged by the regional prosecutors. 

During the trial, the court examined the minutes of witnesses’ and victims’ interviews, expert explanations concerning the crimes committed by the Nazis on the territory of Crimea, eyewitness accounts, documents fixing crimes against civilians dated 1943-44, mass media excerpts of those times, court and tribunal verdicts confirming the massacres of civilians and prisoners of war, archive documents.

Numerous facts of mass extermination of Soviet people in Crimea have been confirmed by the said documents, the prosecutors’ statement reads.

Just before the trial, Russia’s Federal Security Service declassified new records of the fascist atrocities in Crimea during the Great Patriotic War. According to the documents, about 87,000 civilians and over 47 prisoners of war were tortured and killed by the Nazis on the peninsula.