The French anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office is investigating the death of an AFP journalist in Ukraine. Arman Soldin, 32, was killed in Russian Grad missile fire.
The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) launched a war crimes investigation on Wednesday in connection with the death of AFP journalist Arman Soldin.
The investigation was entrusted to the Central Office for Combating Crimes Against Humanity and Hate Crimes (OCLCH). According to a source familiar with the case, OCLCH has already prepared a team of experts to go to the site of the incident – the village of Chsiv Yar near Bakhmut.
AFP journalist killed in Russian shelling
Arman Soldin, 32, a Sarajevo-born French journalist and AFP video coordinator in Ukraine, was killed by Grad rockets. He was hit as he lay on the ground trying to protect himself from the attack.
No one from the rest of the team was injured. Soldin was part of a team of five AFP reporters who accompanied Ukrainian soldiers on the hottest front of the war.
Journalists in UkraineHoncharuk Andrii / Shutterstock.com
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) deals with crimes against humanity and war crimes. Since late February 2022, the PNAT has launched seven investigations into possible war crimes committed against the French.
Among the victims are: Pierre Zakrzewski, a French-Irish operator of the American Fox News station, killed on March 14, 2022 in the town of Horenka in the north-west of Ukraine after an attack on his vehicle, and Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff, a journalist of the BFMTV station, killed May 30, 2022 while working in the east of the country.
Soldin is at least the 11th journalist or media crew member to die in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Main photo source: Honcharuk Andrii / Shutterstock.com