The Council of Europe and the International Criminal Court will not be able to bring Russia’s top military and political leadership to justice for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.
This was reported by Mariia Mezentseva-Fedorenko, MP, head of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE, in the program of Ihor Dolhov on the Ukrinform YouTube channel.
“The Council of Europe is an international organization that has recently celebrated 75 years of activity, but it is still not a court. And it is not an international court, such as the International Criminal Court, which operates in the Netherlands. Although it would not be able to bring the top political and military leadership of the Russian Federation to justice either. There are very specific legal reasons for this,” she noted.
The MP recalled that last year the Verkhovna Rada ratified the Rome Statute, thus Ukraine entered into “absolutely legal, legitimate relations with a body where the crime of aggression can be considered.”
“But Russia will not shoot itself in the foot and will not implement such ratification,” she explained.
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According to her, the UN court, which was a potential platform for justice for Russian criminals, is not currently being considered either.
The parliamentarian explained that it is precisely because of the inability to bring the Russian leadership to justice for the crime of aggression by existing bodies and institutions that the need to create an international tribunal arose.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, the UK plans to announce its support for plans to hold an international trial of Russian criminals based on the Nuremberg trials, despite Donald Trump’s opposition.
Source: MP: Council of Europe and ICC unlikely to bring Russia's leaders to justice
