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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

As war rages, international justice teams are keeping a different kind of score

Peacekeepers count 7,061 civilian casualties, with 3,381 killed and 3,680 wounded since Russia began the war in Ukraine in February.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — The war in Ukraine entered its fourth month this week, but Ukraine has already secured its first war crimes conviction stemming from the full-scale invasion.

On Monday, 21-year-old Russian sergeant Vadim Shishimarin was sentenced to life in prison for shooting Oleksandr Shelipov, an unarmed, 62-year-old Ukrainian civilian, in the head. When Shishimarin pleaded guilty last week, his court-appointed lawyer told the court that Shishimarin was ordered to shoot out of the window of a commandeered car — his group’s armored vehicle had broken down — and kill Shelipov to prevent him from giving away their location. 

The International Criminal Court — the world’s only permanent court for the prosecution of genocide and crimes against humanity — meanwhile sent its largest-ever investigative team to Ukraine last week. To collect evidence of war crimes, the Hague-based court deployed a team of 42, investigators, forensic experts and support staff to the country. “Now more than ever we need to show the law in action,” chief prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement. 

Almost half of that team comes from the Netherlands. The Dutch have a strong history of prosecuting serious cases under universal jurisdiction, a legal principle that allows countries to prosecute crimes that didn’t happen on their territory. “It’s atypical work and we have atypical investigators,” Vincent Cilessen, the team leader of the International Crimes Unit, told journalists in a recent briefing. His office now employs 40 investigators, and they’ve brought cases from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Bosnia and more. 

Authorities in 14 countries — among them, France, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden — have likewise opened up their own universal jurisdiction investigations into the Russian invasion. The bulk of the 6 million refugees who have fled the conflict are in Romania and Poland, making it likely that victims, witnesses and perhaps even some perpetrators are residing abroad. 

Efforts to coordinate future prosecutions are being made by Eurojust, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, which is also based in The Hague. Backed by Eurojust, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine have set up a joint investigation team to collect evidence and facilitate interaction between the countries, an initiative the ICC has joined as well. “The start of the war was not the start of problems for Ukraine,” Ukrainian liaison prosecutor Myroslava Krasnoborova told journalists during a recent briefing. Ukraine was a member of another team that investigated the downing of Flight MH17 in 2014. Dutch prosecutors have charged four men with the downing of the flight, in a trial that is in its final phase. 

Against this backdrop, human rights groups are calling for more. Eight organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, published a letter calling on European Union lawmakers to expand the options available for justice. They want the EU to provide more financial support to the ICC and create specialized war crimes units in countries to assist with investigations. 

Meanwhile, the war rages on. The U.N. mission in Ukraine has counted 7,061 civilian casualties, with 3,381 killed and 3,680 wounded. “Ukraine is a crime scene,” prosecutor Khan said following a visit to the town of Bucha, near Kyiv, in April. Hundreds of bodies were found after Russian troops withdrew from the town last month, some in mass graves but some not buried at all, simply lying in the streets where they fell.

Follow @mollyquell
Categories / International, Politics

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