MOSCOW, July 28 (RAPSI) — The Bryansk regional court has recognized as genocide the mass murders of civilians and prisoners of war committed in the region by the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War, the press service of the No Statute of Limitations project informs RAPSI.

The established and newly revealed crimes committed in 1941-1943 on the territory of the Bryansk region are to be qualified as genocide of national and ethnic groups representing the population of the USSR, Judge Nadezhda Petrakova declared in the court decision.

During the process, stakeholders, witnesses in the case - direct eyewitnesses of the events that took place on the territory of the Bryansk region during the period of military occupation, as well as relatives of the victims, supported the move of the prosecutor's office.

According to investigators, at least 80,000 people were kept in the Dulag-142 concentration camp located in the region, 40,000 of which were tortured to death. In total, during the occupation of the Bryansk region, the Nazis and their accomplices exterminated about 278,000 peaceful Soviet citizens and prisoners of war.

The trial in Bryansk in the case of the genocide of Soviet citizens by the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War is the sixth such trial in Russian history. Previously, similar processes have taken place in the Pskov, Novgorod, Rostov and Oryol regions and in the Republic of Crimea.