exclusive
The German Alexander F. is said to have fought on the Russian side in Ukraine. Now the German judiciary is investigating against him. It is the first case of this kind since the outbreak of the Russian war of aggression.
He suddenly had the feeling that he had to fight now. That’s what Alexander F. said in an interview with ZDF. In 2015, the German, who was born in Ukraine and then lived in Frankfurt am Main, finally went to war. That was after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of fighting in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Alexander F. is said to have joined the local pro-Russian combat units at the time and to have taken part in battles several times. When asked which armed forces he belonged to, he did not answer. Also last year, when Russia started the comprehensive war of aggression against Ukraine, F. is said to have fought on the Russian side. Among other things, he is said to have participated in the battle for Mariupol. There are pictures of him showing him in combat gear. Until October 2022, the German was taken prisoner by the Ukrainians, videos of which also circulated on the Internet.
At prisoner exchange released
Alexander F. was detained for several weeks, during which time he spoke to the German media and received visits from German diplomats. However, the 41-year-old German has since been released as part of a prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia. In January of this year he is said to have been brought to Moscow together with Russian soldiers and fighters and appeared on local television. There he was seen with other fighters in uniform in front of a Russian military plane.
After research by WDR and NDR The German law enforcement authorities are now dealing with his case. The public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt am Main had already initiated preliminary proceedings against Alexander F. last year. In February, the files were finally submitted to the Attorney General in Karlsruhe, who has since taken over the case but does not want to comment on it.
fear of Prosecution
Alexander F., with the NDR and WDR spoke via chat, did not want to comment on investigations against him. In an earlier chat with another person, he said he wanted to return to Donbass. An association close to the AfD and an AfD member of the Bundestag had previously campaigned for the Russian human rights commissioner to have Alexander F. brought to Moscow by prisoner exchange at his request, also because he was afraid of criminal prosecution in Germany.
The Attorney General is now investigating F. on suspicion of preparing a serious act of violence that is dangerous to the state (Section 89a of the Criminal Code). This paragraph, also called “terror camp paragraph” by investigators, was created in Germany after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the USA in order to be able to prosecute terrorist preparatory actions – such as training with weapons and explosives in terrorist training camps or preparing for building a bomb. So far, Islamist terrorists planning attacks in Germany have been convicted under Section 89a of the Criminal Code.
Individual proof for war crimes
Fighters who have joined pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine in recent years pose a certain legal challenge for prosecutors. The combat units and separatist groups that act in the Donbass on behalf of Russia are not classified as terrorist organizations in Germany .
This means that the Attorney General has had to obtain authorization from the Federal Ministry of Justice to prosecute for each individual case. Investigations into possible war crimes could always be pursued by the German judiciary, but would have to be proven individually.
Because of his alleged involvement in the battle for Mariupol, which was taken by Russian forces in May 2022, the German judiciary could examine this in the case of Alexander F.
The case of Alexander F. is apparently the first case since the outbreak of the Russian war of aggression in February 2022 in which the Attorney General is investigating a fighter.
Two fighters convicted
However, there were a few similar cases that occurred during the fighting in eastern Ukraine after the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. In the past few years, fighters who fought on the Russian side in Ukraine have been sentenced twice.
In February 2019, for example, the Munich I Regional Court sentenced the German-Russian Sergej K. to two years and three months in prison because he first joined a Russian militia in St. Petersburg in August 2014 and later took part in fights in eastern Ukraine.
In July 2019, a German born in Kyrgyzstan was sentenced to two years’ probation by the district court in Dortmund. During the trial he confessed to having joined a militia of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” from 2014 to 2016, but the public prosecutor’s office could not prove the accused’s specific participation in combat operations.