Last March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president for the war crime of “illegally deporting” Ukrainian children since the beginning of the invasion.
Tensions appear to be heating up over the Russian president, who faces charges of “illegally deporting” Ukrainian children. The International Criminal Court (ICC), which celebrated its 25th anniversary this week in The Hague, Netherlands, continues to collect information for its investigations.
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Evidence is initially gathered in real time, on site in Ukraine, but also across Europe with refugees. Since the beginning of July, the ICC has also been able to access the database of Eurojust, the European agency for judicial cooperation. Eleven countries are already working together and have submitted thousands of pieces of evidence: testimonies of victims, photos or videos recovered from phones and social networks, satellite images.
Thanks to certain cross-checks, this data can flow into a future experiment. For example, the testimony of a Ukrainian refugee in Poland who saw civilians being massacred is compared in this way with the testimony of a soldier who was in the area on the same day and time.
Limited Powers
This evidence will undoubtedly make it possible to bring Vladimir Putin to justice for war crimes or crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court, as he already has an arrest warrant for child deportation. However, Ukrainians want him to be charged with the crime of “aggression” that punishes illegal wars, which would have a completely different meaning. However, for complex legal reasons, the ICC cannot currently prosecute him for this specific fact.
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An army of lawyers is therefore currently considering a solution, but encounters concerns. Extending the powers of the ICC to the crime of “aggression” could lead to a rupture that worries some states such as France, the United Kingdom or the United States. Complaints could be made in relation to their past military operations in Iraq or Mali.
A new kind of dish
The other option, therefore, would be the creation of a special international tribunal established by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. Not wasting a minute, Ukrainian, European and ICC prosecutors, recently joined by an American prosecutor, are already working on a future “crime of aggression” indictment, based on the evidence base already gathered.
This lays the foundations for a future Putin process. This new breed of prosecutor, installed at Eurojust’s headquarters in The Hague and showing the Allies’ determination to bring the Russian President to justice, already occupies an entire floor.