The International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine opened Monday in The Hague. It brings together prosecutors from several countries.
An international office responsible for investigating the “crime of aggression” of Russia against Ukraine opened in The Hague (Netherlands) on Monday 3 July. According to kyiv, it is a first step “historical” towards the creation of a special tribunal intended to bring to justice the Russian leaders responsible for the war which began in February 2022. This newly created investigation office raises several questions to which franceinfo provides answers.
Who makes up this investigation office?
This International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA) is a form of prosecution. He is in charge of investigating and collecting evidence to establish civil and military responsibilities for the Russian invasion. It brings together prosecutors from the International Criminal Court (ICC), but also from Ukraine, the United States and five member countries of the European Union. DThe magistrates of the three Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) will thus participate in the investigations with their counterparts in Poland and Romania, specifies The world.
This investigation office is placed under the authority of Eurojust, the European agency responsible for strengthening judicial cooperation between the Member States, with an initial budget of 8.3 million euros, reports the washington post. “Eurojust provides operational, legal, financial and logistical support [aux magistrats]in particular to preserve, preserve and analyze evidence”, adds the European Commission. The ICPA is also located at the agency’s headquarters, so that prosecutors can “working together daily”according to the Commission.
What files will he take?
CAPI to investigate “responsibility for the crime of aggression” of Russia against Ukraine, recalled on Monday the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, Andriy Kostin, during a press conference. This charge corresponds, for the ICC, to “the use by a State of armed force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another State”. It makes it possible to prosecute the leaders of the aggressor country and is similar to the notion of “crime against peace”, used in the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials at the end of the Second World War.
“If the crime of aggression had not been committed, there would not have been 93,000 other incidents of war crimes.”
Andriy Kostine, Ukrainian Prosecutor Generalat a press conference
Andriy Kostine clarified that 600 people are already suspected of having participated in this crime of aggression, “including part of the Duma, the Russian Parliament”, reports RFI. To establish these responsibilities, the magistrates of the ICPA will be able to gather and exchange elements of evidence. The Deputy Attorney General of the United States, Kenneth Polite, announced that his services had already submitted a series of evidence to the office of investigation.
International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan welcomed the openness of the ICPA, saying it was the “first time” that evidence of war crimes had already been gathered during a conflict. CAPI cannot, however, produce indictments or arrest warrants for the suspects, underlines the washington post. According to the American daily, the objective of these magistrates is to support the investigations already underway.
Will a special tribunal be created?
The opening of the CAPI is “a clear signal that the world is united and unyielding when it comes to holding the Russian regime accountable for all its crimes.”said the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, calling this moment a“historical”. For Kiev, this investigation office is a crucial step towards the constitution of a special tribunal responsible for judging the Russian leaders, an initiative that President Volodymyr Zelensky has been calling for for several months. The United States also supports the creation of this special tribunal.
However, this project is still far from complete. First, because the ICC is only competent to try a crime of aggression if the country accused of it is a signatory to the Rome Statute, the international treaty that founded this court in 2002. However, this is not the case of Russia. However, this did not prevent the Court from taking up the war crimes charges against Moscow. In March, the court had issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin, accused of being responsible for the deportation of Ukrainian children.
Some of kyiv’s Western allies, however, fear that the special tribunal initiative will not gain sufficient support at the UN. They therefore plead for the formation of a hybrid court, composed of Ukrainian judges and of other nationalities. Until this question is decided, the ICPA is therefore responsible for starting to collect the elements of the files. “While discussions continue, … it is crucial to ensure that the necessary evidence is collected and that investigations can begin.notes the European Commission. This work is essential to prepare for future trials, whether before national or international courts, including a possible tribunal for the crime of aggression or the ICC for crimes within its jurisdiction.”