MOSCOW. July 25 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia is satisfied with the European Court of Human Rights' ruling in the case brought by World War II veteran Vasily Kononov against Latvia.
"Russia was satisfied to learn about the long-awaited ruling by the European Court of Human Rights on the complaint from World War II veteran Kononov against Latvia," the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department of Information and Press said in a statement released on Friday.
Former Latvian-born Soviet soldier Kononov was arrested in 1998 and accused of war crimes by the country's authorities. The trial against him continued for several years, he was found guilty and released from custody in 2000 after serving his sentence. In 2004, Kononov filed a lawsuit with the ECHR seeking an acquittal verdict.
"We are happy that justice has been done and the 85-year-old war veteran, who endured the hardships of imprisonment and the moral and psychological campaign against him, and who had been illegally prosecuted in Latvia for a long time, finally received an objective verdict from the European Court of Human Rights," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.