Before the end of 2018 we count on receiving materials from Central Asia about deportation of Tatars for Stalin-Beria case - PGO
The Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) of Crimea expects a number of historical documents and the results of investigative actions in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The office will then complete its investigation of the case against the Soviet leaders Joseph Stalin and Lavrentiy Beria in connection with the deportation of the Crimean Tatars.
In an exclusive interview with the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Prosecutor Gunduz Mamedov said the purpose of the investigation of this case is the restoration of historical justice and proper legal assessment of those events.
"Not to talk about the guilt of these persons is the same as saying that there was no crime. But the crime took place. There are victims, there are victims whose rights should be restored as far as possible," he said.
"The investigation is at the final stage. Unfortunately, at the moment we cannot finish it completely, since our petitions sent to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation have not yet been executed," the prosecutor said.
Mamedov said within the framework of international legal instructions the PGO applied for a number of historical documents, as well as permission to conduct investigative actions on the territory of these countries.
Answering a question about whether it is possible to complete the investigation without information from Russia, he said, "I think so. Yes, a large amount of material has already been collected today. Investigators of the prosecutor's office have long worked in archives with historical materials."
Mamedov said a historical and demographic examination was also conducted.
As reported, the Ukrainian prosecutor's office signed a suspicion of Stalin and Beria of committing genocide in connection with the deportation of the Crimean Tatars - Part 1 of Article 442 of Ukraine's Criminal Code.
In December 2015, Crimea's PGO opened an investigation in the criminal proceedings on the fact of the forced relocation in 1944 of the Crimean Tatar people and representatives of other national groups from the territory of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
