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2 Russian soldiers who massacred Ukrainian family of 9 sentenced to life in prison
A Russian court sentenced two soldiers to life in prison for the massacre of a family of nine people in their home in occupied Ukraine, state media reported on Friday.
Russian prosecutors said in October 2023, the two Russian soldiers, Anton Sopov and Stanislav Rau, entered the home of the Kapkanets family in the city of Volnovakha with guns equipped with silencers.
They then shot all nine family members who lived there, including two children aged 5 and 9.
The southern district military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced the two men to life in prison for mass murder “motivated by political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred,” the state-run TASS news agency reported, citing an unnamed law enforcement source.
The incident triggered uproar in Ukraine.
Kyiv alleged at the time that the Russian soldiers had murdered the family in their sleep after they refused to move out of their home to allow Russian soldiers to live there.
“The occupiers killed the Kapkanets family, who were celebrating a birthday and refused to give up their home,” Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said a day after the murder.
Russian forces seized the city of Volnovakha in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region at the start of their full-scale military offensive. Russian artillery strikes virtually destroyed it.
Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Russian soldiers have been accused of multiple instances of killing civilians in Ukrainian towns and cities they have occupied since February 2022.
Moscow has always denied targeting civilians and tried to claim reports of atrocities at places like Bucha were fake, despite widespread evidence from multiple independent sources. In 2022, independent journalists who went into Bucha found the streets littered with bodies. The dead were wearing civilian clothing, and some had their hands tied behind their backs, apparently executed. Others were buried in a mass grave.
The arrest and sentencing in this case is a rare example of Russia admitting to a crime committed by its troops in Ukraine.
State media did not say what prosecutors determined the reason for the attack was.
TASS suggested it could have been a “domestic dispute” while both the independent Radio Free Europe and Kommersant business outlets said it could have been linked to a dispute over obtaining vodka.
The trial was held in secret.
The independent Radio Free Europe outlet reported that Rau, 28, and Sopov, 21 were mercenaries for the Wagner paramilitary before joining Russia’s official army.
They had both received state awards a few months before the mass murder, it said.
Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and 9 crew members were killed last year when Prigozhin’s plane crashed between Moscow and Saint Petersburg, two months after he led a brief mutiny against Russia’s top military brass.
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In Trump 2020 election case, Jack Smith asks judge for time to determine “appropriate course”
Washington — Special counsel Jack Smith has asked the federal district court in Washington to forego current deadlines in the case against President-elect Donald Trump related to the 2020 election to allow prosecutors more time to assess the “unprecedented circumstance” arising out of his election Tuesday to serve a second term in the White House.
Smith told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in a one-paragraph filing that his office would like additional time to “determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.” He said prosecutors will provide more information to the court by Dec. 2.
Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the race for the White House on Tuesday and will be sworn-in for a second term on Jan. 20. As a result of Trump’s victory, the Justice Department and special counsel’s office are discussing how to wind down the ongoing federal prosecutions against Trump.
The Justice Department has a longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Citing the outcome of the election and Trump’s upcoming inauguration, Smith told the court that the deadlines in the pretrial schedule set by Chutkan should be tossed out “to afford the government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance.”
Trump is facing four federal charges in the case arising out of what Smith alleges was an unlawful scheme to subvert the transfer of power after the 2020 election. He pleaded not guilty and has denied wrongdoing.
Proceedings in the case were halted for months as Trump pursued claims that he was immune from federal prosecution all the way up to the Supreme Court. The high court ruled in July that former presidents cannot face charges arising from official actions taken while in the White House.
The case returned to Chutkan in August, and a grand jury returned a new indictment against Trump that narrowed the allegations against him to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling. The two sides have been arguing in court papers about whether the new charges can stand.
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More than 40 monkeys escaped from a research facility in South Carolina on Wednesday, prompting warnings for nearby residents to secure their doors and windows. The fugitive monkeys had not been captured as of Friday morning.
Here is what we know so far:
Where exactly did the monkeys escape in South Carolina?
The primates broke loose from Alpha Genesis in Yemassee, Beaufort County in South Carolina.
The company confirmed 43 rhesus macaque primates escaped from an enclosure at one of the company’s facilities.
The Yemassee Police Department said on Thursday that traps with bait were set up and thermal imaging cameras were being used in an effort to capture the monkeys.
“Residents are strongly advised to keep doors and windows secured to prevent these animals from entering homes,” police said. “If you spot any of the escaped animals, please contact 911 immediately and refrain from approaching them.”
How did the monkeys escape the research facility?
Greg Westergaard, CEO of Alpha Genesis, told CBS News on Thursday that a caretaker inadvertently failed to secure a door at the enclosure, allowing the monkeys to roam free.
“It’s really like follow-the-leader. You see one go and the others go,” he said. “It was a group of 50 and 7 stayed behind and 43 bolted out the door.”
He told CBS News on Friday that while they have not captured any of the monkeys, they are staying close to the facility.
“They’re just being goofy monkeys jumping back and forth playing with each other,” he said. “It’s kind of like a playground situation here.”
Westergaard said the company has put out baited traps but the monkeys are not going inside them yet.
“They’re jumping down and taking the food and then jumping back up on the fence and the tree line,” he added. “They’re watching us the same way we’re watching them.”
He acknowledged that it would be a long process to get them back and that they didn’t want to chase the monkeys because that would spook them and make them run away.
“We’ve got them very close,” Westergaard said. “This is all like what we want to see.”
What kind of monkeys are they?
The monkeys that escaped are rhesus macaque primates, which have brown fur with red faces and ears. They have close-cropped hair on their heads, which accentuates their very expressive faces.
The rhesus macaques are Asian, Old World monkeys that are primarily found in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Southeast Asia and China.
Md Rafayat Haque Khan/ Eyepix Group/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Rhesus macaques were imported to the U.S. in the 1970s for biomedical research in laboratories, according to the New England Primate Conservancy.
Rhesus macaques are “bold, extremely curious, and adventurous monkeys” and the species is “highly adaptable to coexisting alongside humans,” the conservancy says.
The rhesus macaque’s typical diet includes roots, fruit, seeds, and bark as well as insects and small animals.
What were they using the monkeys to test?
According to its website, Alpha Gensis breeds monkeys and provides “nonhuman primate products and bio-research services” across the globe. The company’s clinical trials reportedly include research on progressive brain disorders.
Local authorities said Thursday that the escaped primates were “very young females weighing approximately 6-7 lbs” and had never been used for testing due to their age.
Alpha Genesis says its staff of veterinary technicians and animal specialists work with cynomolgous, rhesus and capuchin monkeys.
The Post and Courier newspaper reported last year that Alpha Genesis won a federal contract to oversee a colony of 3,500 rhesus monkeys on South Carolina’s Morgan Island, known as “Monkey Island.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed in a statement that the monkeys were previously living on Morgan Island as “free-range monkeys” and were brought to the Alpha Genesis facility “for conditioning to be around people.”
The facility is registered with the CDC as a nonhuman primates importer, which means it “must meet standards for the importation, quarantine, and use of NHPs,” the agency said.
The CDC added that “the risk to the public is low as long as people do not approach or come in contact” with the monkeys.
How often do research monkeys escape?
This is not the first time primates have escaped from Alpha Genesis.
Eight years ago, 19 primates escaped from the company’s facility but were recaptured about six hours later.
CBS affiliate WCSC in Charleston at the time reported that local officials said the escapes were not infrequent but generally the monkeys return to the compound because they know that is where there is food.
“Every couple of years we’ll have one or two that get out. We have never had this many get out,” Westergaard told CBS News on Friday.
Last year in Pennsylvania, dozens of lab monkeys escaped after a truck carrying 100 of the animals crashed. All the primates were later accounted for.
