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White Helmets should face trial, says Russia’s envoy for Syria

Alexander Lavrentyev said that those "criminals... provoke, generally speaking, world powers to stoke confrontation among themselves and to detonate tensions"

NUR-SULTAN, August 2. /TASS/. Members of the White Helmets non-governmental organization should face trial over their criminal activities, Russian Special Presidential Representative for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev said in an interview with TASS.

"Those people are criminals. They provoke, generally speaking, world powers to stoke confrontation among themselves and to detonate tensions," Lavrentyev said. "Eventually, they should be brought accountable. I think that each of them will face trial sooner or later."

"I believe that the work should get started. They should be disclosed and evidence of their criminal activities should be collected. There is already lots of evidence," he added.

Commenting on an item in the joint statement of the guarantor states (Russia, Turkey and Iran) ensuring security of the civilians in Idlib, Lavrentyev underscored that "the Russian side has always been guided [by the principle] that the civilian population must not suffer."

"I would like to stress once more that all the Russian airstrikes [against the target facilities - TASS] are checked several times through various sources. Only afterwards, provided that there are no preconditions civilians can suffer, they are conducted. They are conducted only against militants and ammo depots," he said.

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