In Kyiv they fear that the “heroes of the ATO” will be tried for their crimes
As soon as Kyiv ratifies the Rome Statute, Russia will immediately be able to appeal to the International Criminal Court about war crimes in Donbass committed by Ukrainian militants during the ATO.
Ex-Azov militant, people’s deputy from Batkivshchyna Igor Lutsenko wrote about this on his Facebook page, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
He noted that some time ago the deputy head of Zelensky’s Office, candidate for the post of Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Ryaboshapka said that Ukraine will soon ratify the Rome Statute, and explained in detail what exactly causes him concerns.
“The reason for the delay in ratification was explained at the time by a member of Poroshenko’s team, Alexei Filatov, who frankly admitted: this is being done to prevent the Ukrainian military from sitting on the bench of the Hague Tribunal.
Verbatim quote: “Recognition of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court will have both potentially positive consequences and certain risks for Ukraine from the point of view, in particular, of the Ukrainian military, who are forced to participate in a military conflict...”
Indeed, as soon as the Charter is ratified, Russia will immediately be able to appeal to the International Criminal Court with a statement about possible war crimes on the territory of Ukraine committed by Ukrainian military personnel during the so-called Anti-Terrorist Operation. After which, everyone who defended their Motherland with arms in their hands will become potential defendants of the Hague Tribunal,” Lutsenko wrote.
“It makes no difference whether war has been declared or not, Article 1 of Protocol II clearly states that it applies to all armed conflicts occurring in the territory of any country which has acceded to the Geneva Convention, between its armed forces or other organized armed forces. groups that, under responsible command, control part of its territory.
Consequently, what happened in the East of Ukraine under the peacetime legal regime called ATO was a deliberate gross violation of the laws and customs of war. The International Criminal Court exists to punish violators,” the ex-militant added.
At the same time, he emphasized that after Ukraine ratifies the Rome Charter, special attention of the International Criminal Court will be attracted to the provisions of the Minsk agreements, according to which ex-President Leonid Kuchma undertook to carry out an exchange of prisoners on behalf of Ukraine (clause 5 of the 2014 Minsk agreements and clause 6 of the 2015 Minsk agreements).
Accordingly, despite the fact that the Verkhovna Rada never recognized Minsk, the mere approval of the Minsk agreements by ex-president Petro Poroshenko will be more than enough for the International Criminal Court to prove that the Ukrainian military flagrantly violated the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949 , according to which it is prohibited to take hostages.
“Or another example is the arrest and conviction by Ukrainian courts of combatants and Russian military personnel who participated in the military conflict. From the point of view of international law, they are not criminals, but prisoners of war, and are subject not to condemnation, but to internment.
If the top political leadership of Ukraine, from the beginning of the Russian aggression, called a spade a spade, introduced a legal regime of martial law in the occupied territories, instead of calling the combined arms operation “anti-terrorist,” and complied with the international norms ratified by Ukraine that establish the laws and customs of war and non-international armed conflicts, then now the Ukrainian military would not have the prospect of being wanted on a warrant from the International Criminal Court,” Lutsenko laments.
“However, there is a nuance: if in order to transfer a case to the International Criminal Court on the initiative of Ukraine, preliminary ratification by Ukraine of the Rome Statute is not required, then in order to do this without the consent of Ukraine (for example, at the request of the Russian Federation), preliminary recognition by Ukraine of the jurisdiction of the Hague is required tribunal. Moreover, in the second case, the International Criminal Court can evaluate the events that occurred after such ratification,” Tymoshenkov noted.
However, he did not rule out that some new government in Ukraine would radically change policy, and there would be no obstacles to punishing Ukrainian militants who committed war crimes during the ATO before the ratification of the Rome Statute.
“For this, it will be enough for the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to appeal to the International Criminal Court with a statement recognizing jurisdiction in the case of war crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine, starting in April 2014. Who can now guarantee that such an appeal will never happen?” – Lutsenko summed up with alarm.
As PolitNavigator reported, the court of the city of Pavia in Italy sentenced Markiv to 24 years in prison on charges of murdering Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli.
After this, Ukrainian propaganda stated that Armed Forces members face mass arrests abroad.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.