Russia’s alleged “war crimes” in Ukraine have been recorded in tens of 1000’s of case information and the nation should reply them in court docket, the Ukrainian prosecutor normal mentioned in Brussels.
“Russia must be defeated on the battlefield and in the courtroom,” Andriy Kostin advised AFP in an interview between conferences with EU officers.
The chief prosecutor accused Russia of committing battle crimes as a “pattern of conduct… a policy which is orchestrated from the very top leadership”.
Around 123,000 battle crime circumstances have been logged since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he mentioned.
Prosecution work has recognized 511 suspects within the case, of which 357 could possibly be delivered to justice.
Already, “we have convictions against 81 Russian war criminals”, Kostin added, saying that 17 had been taken to court docket in trials and handed jail sentences.
“Some of them are still in jail. Some of them, we have exchanged” in prisoner swaps with Russia, Kostin mentioned.
Even if many convictions had been handed down within the absence of the accused, it will be significant, he mentioned, for victims to see a verdict delivered.
The alleged crimes judged included the homicide of civilians, rapes, and the deportation of Ukrainian kids, solely 400 of whom have been repatriated out of round 20,000 forcibly taken away, he mentioned.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is working to carry Russia’s management accountable for the kids’s alleged deportation and for the crime of aggression.
It has already issued warrants towards Russian President Vladimir Putin and towards Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for kids’s rights.
On Tuesday it issued warrants towards two senior Russian officers for strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
But neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC, even when Kyiv has been working with the court docket to provide proof of alleged Russian crimes.
International investigators are serving to Ukrainian authorities with the mammoth activity of accumulating, compiling and cataloguing proof.
The work — aided by AI instruments that sift via the mountains of enter, together with witness statements, cellphone conversations, social media posts and seized paperwork — makes the battle essentially the most documented in historical past, Kostin mentioned.
“Our objective this year is to have more suspects charged by other jurisdictions,” Kostin mentioned, noting warrants issued by the United States and motion final week by Lithuania.
“It’s important to show that there will be no safe haven,” he mentioned.
Source: www.anews.com.tr