The Boutcha massacre acted as a trigger. After the discovery of several hundred corpses at the beginning of April in this city on the outskirts of kyiv, 43 countries, including France, seized the International Criminal Court directly, implementing a gigantic judicial cooperation operation. The ICC prosecutor had already announced, a month earlier, the opening of an investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine.
The mobilization of States played the role of accelerator, explains François Alabrune, Director of Legal Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “This allowed the prosecutor to immediately start the investigation, the day after our referral.”
“This makes it possible to very quickly collect material evidence, testimonies before they disappear.”
Francois Alabruneat franceinfo
On the ground, in Ukraine, the French team is already there, two forensic doctors and about fifteen gendarmes in the service of international justice. Paris has beaten the recall of the members of the European Union, through the Eurojust system. This allows the exchange, pooling and centralization of data directly between jurisdictions. Eurojust is steered by a joint investigation team which sends this information to the ICC.
The effort is also financial. France has added 500,000 euros to the 13 million it is already giving to the ICC to respond to the call for contributions launched by prosecutor Karim Khan in The Hague. Never had the institution been tasked with an investigation of such magnitude, explains Luis Vassy, French Ambassador to the Netherlands: “Part of these funds, from the point of view of the prosecutor, must go to the modernization of a certain number of data management tools. Methodologies to both trace the testimonies, analyze them, and then store them Then you will indeed have image analysis questions on which the use of artificial intelligence can be useful. Given the extent of the crimes that are committed and the number of testimonies to be collected, this is going to be an important element .”
Essential elements so that the prosecutor can launch flawless procedures. Because the International Criminal Court does not judge States but people and its objective is not just to prove that war crimes have indeed been committed, but to establish chains of individual responsibility: “Knowing that you will one day be held accountable for the most serious international crimes you may have committed must have a deterrent effect on whoever commits or orders these crimes.” The certainty that there will be no impunity. A major tool in an attempt to curb wars.