A year after the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, seven investigations are underway in France. A long-term job for French magistrates and investigators, who have to deal with the geographical distance from the crime scene and limited resources.
“Justice takes the time to gather evidence so that it can be established. It’s very long, but I understand it.” Sylvie Imhoff takes her trouble patiently. A year after the start of the war in Ukraine, investigations into the death of his son, Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, are continuing. The 32-year-old image reporter who worked for BFMTV was killed by shrapnel, on May 30, 2022, while covering an operationevacuation of civilians near Severodonetsk, in the Luhansk region. Ihe National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat), within which is the judicial center for the fight against crimes against humanity (CCH), war crimes and offences, opened an investigation in the process.
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Less than a month later, the anti-terrorism prosecutor received the mother and spouse of Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff. “Jean-François Ricard told us that everything was being done to gather evidence and for a trial to take place one day”explains Sylvie Imhoff, who “hope that justice can be done to [s]son and to all journalists who died in Ukraine”. She’s not the only one. “We were all very touched by the speed with which the counter-terrorism prosecution opened an investigation and have full confidence in the prosecutor and his team,” says Anne-Sophie Pourquery de Boisserin, sister of Pierre Zakrzewski. This Franco-Irish journalist from Fox News died in the attack on his vehicle on March 14, 2022, in Horenka, northwest of kyiv. Anne-Sophie Pourquery de Boisserin hopes that “all the light will be shed on the death of [s]we brother.”
“Essential” international assistance
French justice displays the same determination. In total, since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, seven preliminary investigations have been opened against X counts of war crimes. None is yet at the instruction stage, which does not allow families to access all the results of the investigations. Two of them concern the facts of which Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff and Pierre Zakrzewski were victims, because they had French nationality. The other five relate to acts committed to the detriment of French nationals, while they were in Ukraine, in particular in Mariupol, Gostomel and Tchernihiv. These French people are alive but suffered, in February and March 2022, tank fire, bombing or violence from soldiers. So many facts “likely to be qualified as war crimes”a notion codified by international law that covers many offences, including attacks on civilians.
To carry out investigations into suspicions of war crimes in Ukraine, a magistrate has been mobilized for several months, almost full time. An imperative in view of the increase in activity generated by the conflict. The means of the CCH are limited. It brings together only five magistrates and three assistants specialized in international law to follow no less than 173 procedures, cover around thirty geographical areas and organize trials. “It requires a great professional investment and prioritizing the most urgent”agrees Aurélie Belliot, deputy anti-terrorism prosecutor at the head of the pole, who hopes for the arrival of a sixth magistrate.
On a daily basis, all magistrates collaborate with their counterparts in each country and at the International Criminal Court (ICC), sometimes with the support of Eurojust (in English), IEuropean Union Judicial Cooperation Unit. Because international mutual legal assistance is “essential” for these files, underlines Aurélie Belliot. In Ukraine, the conflict is well documented. So, in order to trace the thread of events as well as possible and identify those responsible, the investigators organize themselves over the long term to collect evidence, mainly from information reported by NGOs, but also thanks to declassified data.
A field investigation in the middle of the war
Investigations are carried out by investigators from the Central Office for Combating Crimes Against Humanity and Hate Crimes (OCLCH). “We are the armed wing of the Pnat”, defines General Jean-Philippe Reiland, who heads this office attached to the gendarmerie. Within the Europe group, a cell dedicated to Ukraine, made up of seven investigators, carries out investigative work “pretty classic”, according to General. With one exception and not the least: “The crime scene escapes us: it is not on national territory and it is difficult to access it.”
Going there is therefore essential to understand what could have happened. Despite the pitfalls in a country at war, three members of the Pnat and seven gendarmes managed to do so, thanks to “judicial coordination with the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office”notes the magistrate Aurélie Belliot. “In September, we stayed for a week and left with a good suitcase of minutes”, reports the commander of the OCLCH. These reports, written by the Ukrainian authorities, were then given to French investigators. “We are there as guests. We witness what they are doing, we can direct the investigations, but we do not lead them”, explains General Reiland. A practice that applies to any sovereign state.
“We made observations at the place where Pierre Zakrzewski’s vehicle was hit and then on the wreckage of the car, found in a scrapyard in the suburbs of Kiev.”
General Jean-Philippe Reiland, Commander of the Central Office for Combating Crimes Against Humanityat franceinfo
Thus, French magistrates and investigators accompanied their Ukrainian counterparts to the crime scenes. Samples were taken by two experts from the Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN), members of the mission. The aim was also to “search for witnesses around the site of the explosion”, to interrogate them with “IFrench standards”.
Because in the middle of the 70,000 cases in progress in Ukraine, these seven “mirror investigations” only represent“a drop in the sea”. “We go into the details. We collect as much information as possible to move forward”, such as the “description of alleged perpetrators” or the one “of the uniform”adds Jean-Philippe Reiland. “The investigations are progressing quickly and well”, welcomes Clémence Witt, the lawyer for the family of Pierre Zakrzewski. The fact that they are carried out by a joint investigation team, between France, Ireland and Ukraine, facilitates their progress.
Discreet investigations
However, some information is only available“through the words of the victims”, points to the general. This is why the hearing of the families very often constitutes the starting point of the investigations, in particular in the case of the two journalists killed. “I was questioned for a whole afternoon about Frédéric’s background, his personality and what he did in Ukraine”, recounts Sylvie Imhoff, who met with an OCLCH investigator in September. But in the files on the suspicions of war crimes committed on French nationals, certain hearings have not yet taken place. At least not exactly as some imagined.
This is the case for Aurélien, who lived with his wife, Ukrainian, in Gostomel, Kyiv Oblast, when the war broke out. His house was bombed on March 1, 2022. The couple took refuge with neighbors for ten days, sleeping on the ground. Both were then able to cross the Polish border and reach Hérault, where Aurélien is from. “Officers came to take our statement, separately, for a full day”, recounts the 28-year-old man, still marked by what he has experienced. If he is satisfied with having been able to deliver a “narrative from A to Z”he regrets that his request for protection as a witness has been refused and would like to be informed of the progress of the investigation. “We are left in a gray area. It’s a shame”he denounces, bitter.
“It was through relatives that I learned that investigators had traveled to Ukraine.”
Aurélien, French national victim of bombardments in Gostomelat franceinfo
“For security reasons, no one will ever be notified ahead of our trips. But when we return, all the people concerned have been notified”retorts the deputy prosecutor Aurélie Belliot. “We are very attentive to the care of the victims”assures the magistrate, adding that associations required by the Pnat can accompany them.
“Complex offenses to establish”
Despite everything, Aurélien believes in justice. “The investigators told me that there would be a trial, perhaps, in two, three or… 10 years. Unfortunately, it’s not tomorrow the day before… It’s not easy to find those who did this, if only the regiment”, he argues. “We are conducting the investigations with the aim of allowing a court to judge the perpetrators and responsible for these facts”insists, for her part, Aurélie Belliot, who wishes to recall the importance of bringing “a criminal response” to the abuses committed.
It does not matter in which court or state the trial will be held. The Pnat works “in the service of international law”. This means that the elements collected within the framework of a French investigation can be transmitted to Ukraine, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague (Netherlands), to Germany or to any other country in a capacity to try people expelled for war crimes or crimes against humanity. The reverse is also possible, notes Aurélie Belliot: “These States or the ICC can provide elements to try an author in our country.”
For the facts concerning Ukraine, it is still too early to give a deadline. Everytime, “going up the chain of responsibility” is difficult and “the offenses are complex to establish”, acknowledges the Deputy Prosecutor. But the magistrate wishes to recall that the trials remain in the line of sight of French justice, because they “are in line with the action taken” : “What matters is that the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity do not go unpunished.”