An investigation was opened on Wednesday May 10 for war crimes after the death on Tuesday in Ukraine of AFP journalist Arman Soldin, said the national anti-terrorist prosecution.
This investigation, entrusted to the gendarmes of the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes (OCLCH), will aim to determine the circumstances of this death.
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The OCLCH has been preparing a team for the past few hours to go to the scene of the tragedy, according to a source familiar with the matter.
“He fell because he wanted to make the facts known”: minute of silence in the Senate for journalist Arman Soldin
Arman Soldin, French journalist born in Sarajevo, video coordinator of AFP in Ukraine, was killed Tuesday at the age of 32 by a salvo of Grad rockets.
At least 7 investigations opened since 2022
Arman Soldin was part of a team of five AFP reporters who accompanied Ukrainian soldiers on the most active front of the war, around Chassiv Iar, a Ukrainian town near Bakhmout and targeted daily by Russian forces.
The salvo of Grad rockets that hit it were fired around 4:30 p.m. (1330 GMT). He was hit as he lay on the ground trying to protect himself. The rest of the team escaped unscathed.
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The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) has jurisdiction over crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Since the end of February 2022, the Pnat has opened at least seven investigations for possible war crimes committed, mainly in February and March of last year, against French people.
11th reporter killed since the start of the conflict
Among them, Pierre Zakrzewski, Franco-Irish cameraman for Fox News killed on March 14 in Horenka in the north-west of the Ukrainian capital after the attack on his vehicle and Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, journalist for BFMTV, killed on May 30 while he was following a humanitarian mission in the east of the country.
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In this context, the prosecutor went from September 12 to 16 in the Kiev region, accompanied by a team from the anti-terrorist prosecution, the OCLCH and the Institute for Criminal Research of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN).
Arman Soldin is at least the eleventh reporter, fixer or driver of journalists to have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, according to a count by specialized NGOs RSF and CPJ.
