“The International Criminal Court has never convicted a state official”, explains, Friday, September 16 on franceinfo Reed Brody, member of the International Commission of Jurists, specialist in the defense of human rights. A new mass grave has been discovered in Izium in Ukraine. Ursula von der Leyen, who visited Ukraine for the third time on Thursday, wants Vladimir Putin to be tried for war crimes committed since the start of the war against Ukraine.
>> War in Ukraine: follow the latest information in our live
franceinfo: Ursula von der Leyen spoke about war crimes. What do you think ?
Reed Brody: These are right words. We have been shocked for months to see atrocities one after another, the bombing of civilian facilities, mass graves, the use of weapons in urban areas. These are a whole series of war crimes, certainly crimes against humanity. So those are strong words but the situation calls for those kinds of threats or promises and for justice.
The UN wants to send a team to Izioum to investigate the allegations of mass graves. How is this going to happen?
In the mass grave that we have just discovered, we must dig up the bodies, examine them, determine the cause of death. Then, what is more difficult is to attach these crimes to particular people, to the regiments, to the military units to determine who gave the order and who accepted.
“With regard to Vladimir Putin, it must be proven that he gave orders for these atrocities to be committed, or that he was aware that they were being committed and that he did not intervene to stop them. C It’s painstaking work but I think we can do it.”
Vladimir Putin, like us, attends this spectacle every day. He’s the commander. So, did he intervene at any time? We have no record of that.
Does the International Criminal Court have the competence to try Vladimir Putin?
She’s the only one who has them. Vladimir Putin enjoys immunity before other courts, whether Ukrainian, French or otherwise, he has the immunity of a head of state. So only the International Criminal Court or the Russian courts would have jurisdiction. But even if the International Criminal Court succeeds in indicting him, it must apprehend him. The biggest difficulty will be capturing it. We must be careful because the International Criminal Court, in 20 years of existence, has never condemned a state official at any level whatsoever. The United States challenges the court’s jurisdiction to try non-member states. According to this logic the Court could not judge the Russians for their actions in Ukraine.