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Ukraine counts 600 war crimes suspects and will prosecute 80

By isabel ferrer (Hague). The country already counts more than 600 Russian war crimes suspects and has begun prosecuting 80 of them, Attorney General Iryna Venediktova reported Tuesday. The list of suspects includes “Russia’s leading military officers, politicians and propaganda agents,” Venediktova told a press conference by Eurojust, the European Union agency for judicial cooperation, in The Hague.

Among the crimes currently being investigated in Ukraine are war crimes and crimes against humanity, included in the so-called fundamental crimes of international justice. Venediktova explained that they are investigating “war crimes, such as the forced transfer of Ukrainian minors to Russia, or the massacres of civilians. As we have not yet been able to enter Donbas, the testimonies collected about what happened there are from refugees.

In addition, the judicial authorities of Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia have joined the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) formed with the support of Eurojust to collect evidence and facilitate investigations into crimes that may have been perpetrated since the invasion.

The JIT was created in March and until now was made up of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine itself. The latter is not a member of Eurojust, but has a prosecutor who acts as a liaison. Since this May, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has also collaborated with the JIT as a participant. This means that the information collected can be forwarded to the court for use in trials. According to Karim Kahn, chief prosecutor of the ICC, the presence of the three new countries in the JIT shows that “the rule of law is not for judges and prosecutors, but for the people.”