The tribunal in The Hague is preparing an investigation against 20 Russian officials
A special tribunal in The Hague is preparing an investigation into 20 Russian officials for crimes against Ukraine. About this informs German wave.
The special tribunal created to investigate the crime of aggression against Ukraine plans to prosecute 20 Russian officials. The Ukrainian side will form the final list of participants. These are high-ranking officials in the political and military spheres responsible for the preparation, initiation and execution of an act of aggression. These persons do not enjoy personal immunity, but functional immunity — that is, protection that is granted exclusively by position and that will not become an obstacle to the investigation.
It was previously reported that the tribunal would extend jurisdiction to the highest officials of Russia — President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mykhailo Mishustin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. They will not be tried while they are in office, but an investigation has already begun. It is expected that formal charges and arrest warrants will be issued after they lose their immunity. The trial against the mentioned persons may take place in absentia.
The tribunal is created in The Hague on the basis of the Council of Europe at the initiative of Western countries. Jurisdiction will be transferred by Ukraine. The judicial structure is based on the model of the Nuremberg Tribunal, which tried war criminals after the Second World War. The prosecutor of the tribunal will work with evidence already collected by the International Center for the Investigation of the Crime of Aggression (ICPA) in The Hague, as well as with materials provided by Ukraine.
The history of the initiative begins in 2022, when it was first proposed by Great Britain. The idea was then supported by both Kyiv and the administration of US President Joe Biden, which financed the process and dispatched American prosecutors. However, after the return of Donald Trump to the White House, the United States stopped participating in this initiative and announced its withdrawal from the ICPA in March.
As of now, the Core Group for establishing the tribunal includes 38 countries. At the end of March, drafts of three constituent documents were presented, including the statute and the agreement on the management of the tribunal. For the structure to work, it must be supported by two-thirds of the member states of the Council of Europe. In some countries, this requires a separate vote in national parliaments, which can take several months.
The crime of aggression is a separate category of international crimes that consists in waging war against another state. The International Criminal Court in The Hague, which previously issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for the forcible removal of Ukrainian children, does not have the authority to consider cases of aggression. It would be possible to launch such an investigation within the ISS only by a decision of the UN Security Council, but Russia’s veto power makes this scenario impossible.
