Jenkins’ imprisonment is illegal
It is not a legitimate decision, which was no doubt uppermost in Mr Albanese’s mind when he was scheduled to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Rome after Pope Leo’s inauguration. Mr Jenkins was convicted by the Russian court on trumped-up charges of being a “mercenary in an armed conflict”, allegedly paid $15,000 a month to fight for Ukraine. Russian state media claimed he “fully admitted his guilt”.
But, as Foreign Minister Penny Wong insists, Mr Jenkins was in fact no mercenary but “a full serving member of the regular Armed Forces of Ukraine”. As such, he must be treated as a prisoner of war, entitled to full protections accorded by the Geneva Conventions. Those protections, Senator Wong pointed out, include an obligation on Russia “to treat him in accordance with international humanitarian law, including humane treatment”, protection against violence, torture and cruel treatment, and “protection from public curiosity”, as well as the “right to a fair trial”, which was not the case in the Ukrainian province of Luhansk, illegally occupied by Russia.
The Geneva Conventions also specify POWs’ rights to legal representation and interpretation at trial. None of that appears to have been afforded Mr Jenkins. As opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said, the sentence was a “sham” and his treatment an “egregious” breach of international law. Mr Jenkins’ best hope may lie with the regular exchange of prisoners between the two warring sides. An average of 125 Ukrainian POWs have been returned to Kyiv each month since the war began in February 2022. The agreement that emerged from Thursday’s meeting between Ukrainian and Russian delegates in Turkey was for a further one-for-one exchange of 1000 prisoners. The Albanese government must ensure Mr Jenkins’ plight is kept front of mind by authorities in Kyiv and Moscow. He is no threat to the Russian state.
Anthony Albanese’s outrage at the 13-year sentence imposed after a sham trial in a Russian court on Melbourne biology teacher Oscar Jenkins, 33, who was captured in Ukraine’s contested Donbas region last December, should be shared by all Australians. In condemning Mr Jenkins to the horrors of a “strict regime penal colony” in the Russian gulag system, the Putin regime has, as the Prime Minister said, shown “a continuation of the way they have behaved, abrogating their responsibilities … This conflict began with them choosing to invade a sovereign nation, and their decision to abrogate their responsibility to uphold international law”.