International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan said that cases of execution of Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war may fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC as an unpunished act.
He said this at a meeting with Ukrainian journalists in The Hague, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“It is impossible to execute a civilian or a prisoner of war who laid down his arms without trial,” Khan said.
Asked whether Russian commanders are responsible for war crimes committed by foreign mercenaries under their command, he said: “Anyone involved in hostilities, whether they are military personnel or others with responsibilities, should not think that they can find a way around the fundamental principle enshrined in the Geneva Convention.”
He emphasized that the ICC was built on a promise to the victims of World War II and the survivors that such a thing would never happen again. “I think it takes a collective effort to fulfill the promises that were made… I believe that the law is sufficiently precise and adapted to ensure that the principles that even war has rules are respected,” the ICC prosecutor said.
Answering the question whether new arrest warrants for war crimes in Ukraine are expected soon, he recalled the six warrants issued earlier against Russian senior officials and noted that work in this direction is ongoing.
According to him, the Office of the Prosecutor is an independent body of the ICC authorized to prosecute and indict those responsible for crimes. “We do not report to any national authority, we have a mandate to conduct an independent investigation on the territory of Ukraine,” Khan said.
He noted that since March 2022, the ICC Prosecutor’s Office has been conducting an independent investigation into Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine.
At the same time, the ICC Field Office in Kyiv increases the efficiency and responsiveness of the ICC’s response to the situation on the ground. “You can work and have good communication with experts in Ukraine, you can form a certain opinion on what exactly happened and why, in accordance with the criteria of the Rome Statute,” Khan said.
He said that he had personally been at the site of the Russian attack on the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital this summer. “I saw the destruction… This is one of the leading centers for children. Not for prisoners, combatants or military, or adults, ordinary civilians, but for children,” he emphasized.
According to Khan, a lot of children suffer because of the war. In this context, the prosecutor mentioned air strikes on a maternity hospital and a children’s hospital in Mariupol, and the deportation of Ukrainian children. He assured that his “team is working very hard and diligently” in this direction.
He also noted the cooperation with the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. “We are looking at a number of factors. We look at the seriousness of the charges, the availability of evidence. We look at the commitment to move at an appropriate speed where the evidence seems to be leading… We cooperate, we communicate, but we have strategic goals based on the importance, the availability of evidence and the prospect that it can lead to a real [result]… We have our own independent jurisdiction, but we communicate very openly [with the Office of the Prosecutor General],” Khan said.
According to the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
As Ukrinform reported, the Prosecutor General’s Office has information about the execution of 93 Ukrainian prisoners on the battlefield.
Source: ICC Prosecutor: Executions of Ukrainian prisoners fall under Court's jurisdiction
