Ukrainian justice, in cooperation with international bodies, counts several thousand potential war crimes, including rape, murder, bombing of residential buildings and looting.
“Evidence is being gathered against all the political and military superiors of the Russian Federation”assures Ivan Mishchenko, judge at the Supreme Court of Ukraine, the highest judicial body in the country, in an interview given to the international editorial staff of Radio France, a year after the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
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Ukrainian justice, which cooperates with the International Criminal Court, the UN, the European Court of Human Rights and Eurojust, the European Union Agency for Judicial Cooperation, has to date already “more than 71,000 war crimes” potential, including rape, murder, bombing of residential buildings and looting.
“Specialized investigators gather evidence which is classified and sent to court for court decisions to be made.”
Ivan Mishchenko, Supreme Court Justice of Ukraineat franceinfo
According to the magistrate, more than 6,000 cases have already been sent to Ukrainian judges for consideration. His wish “that all those involved, those who give orders, those who support Russia’s military aggression and those who directly commit these crimes on the battlefield, be brought to justice”. Vladimir Putin understood.
An international center responsible for coordinating investigations into the “crime of aggression”
“The mission is not easy”recognizes the judge, aware that the Russian president “will not travel to The Hague (Netherlands), where the International Criminal Court sits, of his own volition”. “For now, the principle of immunity is in progress, so there is no legal mechanism for Vladimir Putin to be brought to justice, but we are working on it”continues Ivan Mishchenko.
At the beginning of February, the European Union and Ukraine agreed to set up an international center for the prosecution of the crime of aggression in Ukraine, the ICPA. This office is responsible for coordinating investigations into the “crime of aggression” against Ukraine, to “gather and preserve evidence for future trials” for war crimes, in a logic of international judicial cooperation. Installed in The Hague, in the Netherlands, at the headquarters of Eurojust, this center must be “operational” in July. An investigation team bringing together so far seven countries, Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine, has been set up, in conjunction in particular with the International Criminal Court.
For Kiev, it is above all a first step before the establishment of a special tribunal to try the highest Russian officials, the International Criminal Court (ICC) only having jurisdiction for war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated in Ukraine and not for the “crime of aggression” committed by Russia, attributable to its highest leaders. “The damage cannot be undone, but what we can do is make sure those responsible are brought to justice”declared Thursday at a press conference Myroslava Krasnoborova, Liaison Prosecutor for Ukraine at Eurojust, “firmly convinced that impunity for the crime of aggression should never be accepted”.