ST.PETERSBURG, May 27. /TASS/. Canada has refused to extradite to Russia World War II criminal Vladimir Katryuk, who participated in the massacre of civilians in the Belarusian village of Khatyn in 1943, a deputy Russian prosecutor general said on Tuesday.

In early May the Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against Vladimir Katryuk residing in Canada since 1951 and accused him of complicity with genocide.

"Unfortunately, Canada, which should have brought him to responsibility, has rejected our request to extradite Katryuk," Alexander Zvyagintsev said. "In 2008 Canada dropped all charges against him for some unknown reasons."

According to the available evidence During World War II Katryuk voluntarily joined a Nazi police battalion, which on March 23, 1943 participated in the extermination of the Belarusian village of Khatyn, near Minsk, and all of its residents.