The prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Court (ICC) will participate in the European investigation into major crimes allegedly committed in Ukraine, the first, the judicial cooperation agency Eurojust announced on Monday.
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT), set up in March by Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine in support of Eurojust, aims to facilitate investigations and prosecutions in the states concerned as well as those that can be brought to the ICC, the agency said in a statement.
The ICC Prosecutor Mr. Karim Khan and the Attorneys General of the three countries concerned signed an agreement on the Prosecutor’s Office’s first-ever participation in a JITannounced by Eurojust.
This agreement will enable rapid and real-time coordination and cooperation with partner countries (by the joint investigation team), in the framework of investigations conducted by the prosecutor’s office and by the competent national authoritiessaid the agency.
This agreement allows the parties to send a clear message that every effort will be made to effectively gather evidence on major international crimes committed in Ukraine and bring those responsible to justicesaid Eurojust.
The Court’s prosecutor, created in 2002 to try the worst crimes committed in the world, opened an investigation into the situation in Ukraine on March 3, after receiving the green light from nearly 40 ICC states parties.
Britain’s Karim Khan earlier this month visited the town of Boutcha, near kyiv, where hundreds of civilians were found dead after the Russian occupation, according to Ukrainian authorities. During this visit, he declared that Ukraine is a “crime scene”.
In 2018, Ukraine will be one of 10 non-EU states to have a Liaison Prosecutor with Eurojust.
The European Commission also proposed on Monday to strengthen the Eurojust mandate to enable it to retain evidence of war crimes in Ukraine and share it with the ICC in particular.
Brussels offers establish a central storage system where evidence gathered by EU agencies and bodies, as well as national and international authorities or third parties such as civil society organizations can be stored.
In addition to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office and the ICC, 11 EU member states – including Lithuania and Poland – have opened an investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine, which Moscow has denied.
The current number of war crimes and crimes against humanity recorded in Ukraine is more than 6,000, and other member states are considering joining the joint investigation team, according to the Commission.
Source: Radio-Canada
