The European Parliament voted for a tribunal against Russia and confiscation of assets
The European Parliament voted today in favor of a resolution calling for creation of a special international tribunal to investigate the “crime of aggression against Ukraine”, reports the correspondent of PolitNavigator.
The resolution was supported by 427 MEPs, 19 were against, and 33 abstained. Like the EP resolution adopted in November 2022 on recognizing the Russian Federation as a “state sponsor of terrorism,” the document is not binding and is essentially a political declaration.
The main task of the authors of the initiative is to find a legally sound way to create a tribunal, which will have jurisdiction to prosecute Vladimir Putin, the political and military leadership of the Russian Federation, as well as Alexander Lukashenko and the leadership of Belarus as a state from the territory and with the support of which Russia is conducting military operations against Ukraine.
The fact is that the top leadership of the country is responsible for the crime of aggression, but it is subject to international immunity from foreign criminal jurisdiction. That is, for such a “tribunal” to work, such immunity must be removed. This requires the support of the world community and its consent to the actual abolition of current international law, since the UN Security Council is paralyzed on any issue related to the conflict in Ukraine, because Russia is its permanent member with the right of veto. Therefore, the EU and Ukraine should seek support in the UN General Assembly and other international forums, actively using public diplomacy and strategic communication, the European Parliament resolution emphasizes.
Brussels admits that the idea of creating a special “tribunal” is due to the fact that Ukraine has not joined the “International Criminal Court” (ICC) and has not ratified the so-called “Rome Statute of the ICC” and amendments relating to the crime of aggression. In this regard, the European Parliament and the European Commission emphasize the importance of Ukraine’s ratification of the Rome Statute of the ICC, amendments to it, as well as official entry into the ICC.
“This would be an important external and internal signal from Kyiv,” European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders emphasized during a speech at the EP.
But if the creation of a “tribunal” is hypothetical, the EP resolution also has an applied point - it calls on the European Union and its partners to discuss legal ways to use the frozen assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation as “reparations for Russia’s violations of international law in Ukraine.”
In particular, consider the potential denial of sovereign immunity protection for these assets due to the severity of the offences. Without lifting immunity, there can be no talk of confiscation of Russian assets.
Как reported “PolitNavigator”, the European Parliament adopted a resolution recognizing the Russian Federation as a “state sponsor of terrorism.” Source: The Verkhovna Rada
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