Judge from Mariupol tells Italian colleagues about violence in Russian captivity

Judge of the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv Yulia Matveeva, who was held in Russian captivity for seven months as a Ukrainian judge from Mariupol, told her Italian colleagues about the violation of the norms of the Geneva Convention, psychological and physical violence by the occupation authorities.

"Matveeva was on a working visit to the Republic of Italy, where she met with representatives of the Italian Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Cassation in the building of the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation," the press center of the judiciary of Ukraine said in a statement on its website on Tuesday.

According to the statement, the judge presented the Ukrainian justice system and told her Italian colleagues about the conditions for conducting legal proceedings in Ukraine during martial law.

"In her speech, Matveeeva shared her personal story of being held captive in the temporarily occupied territory. She emphasized the inhumane conditions of detention, facts of physical and psychological violence, as well as attempts to force her to go over to the side of the occupation authorities," the report states.

"I, a current Ukrainian judge of the Illichivskyi District Court of Mariupol, spent seven months in captivity. The conditions there were not just terrible - they were unacceptable. Russia and the illegal formations under its control grossly violate the norms of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war, unlike Ukraine," Matveeeva emphasized.

The report specifies that after refusing to cooperate with the occupiers, Matveeva was unfoundedly accused of encroaching on the "constitutional order of the 'Donetsk People’s Republic'" with her work for the Ukrainian state, however, thanks to the efforts of the Ukrainian state, the judge was released as part of a prisoner exchange.

Speaking about the work of the judicial system in wartime, Matveeva reported that despite shelling, destruction, and air raids, Ukrainian courts continue to administer justice: 97% of court cases were considered last year, which is over 4.3 million.

According to her, during these years of war, almost 160 court premises were destroyed, and the territorial jurisdiction of court cases in over 160 courts was changed.

"The representative of the Prosecutor General's Office at the Court of Cassation of Italy thanked Judge Matveeva for her frank testimony, noting that her story makes the feeling of solidarity with the Ukrainian people even closer," the press center said in a statement.