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Foreign mercenaries convicted of crimes should not be exchanged, HRC head says

"They should be punished and kept behind bars for life," Valery Fadeyev added

MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/. The Russian presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights (HRC) will come up with an initiative prohibiting the exchange of mercenaries whose crimes have been proven in court, the head of the Council, Valery Fadeyev, told a news conference.

"This is a very important aspect: mercenaries taken prisoner, found guilty of committing a crime, once their crimes are proven by a court of law, cannot be exchanged. We believe that these criminals should not be included in the exchange procedures. They should be punished and kept behind bars for life," Fadeyev said.

The HRC will come up with such an initiative and propose its own options for adopting a relevant regulatory act.

"What we are seeing now in the Kursk Region - the shootings of civilians, the shooting of children and women, civilians being used as human shields - all these acts are undoubtedly war crimes. There are quite a lot of mercenaries there, foreign mercenaries. As we know, mercenaries are not official participants in hostilities and with regard to mercenarism, most countries have adopted special laws that make this activity a crime," Fadeyev said.

He added that under Russian laws, mercenarism was punishable by imprisonment from 7 years to 15 years, and up to life imprisonment for murder.

"I believe that it is a separate task for our law enforcement system to identify mercenaries committing horrific crimes in the Kursk Region and punish them as severely as possible," Fadeyev said.

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