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Justice Department launches team to investigate war crimes in Ukraine

A 36-year veteran of the Justice Department known as the "Nazi hunter" has been tapped to serve as the so-called counselor of war crimes accountability.

WASHINGTON (CN) — Gearing up for a long war in Europe, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Tuesday the formation of a team to help prosecute war criminals as Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine nears its fourth month. 

Standing alongside Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova during a surprise visit to a Poland-Ukraine border crossing on Tuesday, Garland said the U.S. stands in solidarity with the war-torn nation of more than 43 million people. 

“America – and the world – has seen the many horrific images and read the heart-wrenching accounts of brutality and death that have resulted from Russia’s unjust invasion of Ukraine,” the attorney general said.

The launch of the Justice Department's War Crimes Accountability Team comes as Russian military forces continue to pound Ukraine’s defenses in eastern areas of the country, including the Luhansk region where combat is described by Ukrainian officials as “fierce.” 

"This initiative will bring together the Department’s leading experts in investigations involving human rights abuses and war crimes and other atrocities; and provide wide-ranging technical assistance, including operational assistance and advice regarding criminal prosecutions, evidence collection, forensics, and relevant legal analysis," according to a Justice Department press release.

A 36-year veteran of the Justice Department who oversaw Nazi war crime prosecutions, Eli Rosenbaum, has been tapped to serve as the first-ever counselor for war crimes accountability. Nicknamed the "Nazi hunter," Rosenbaum will coordinate the DOJ's efforts with other federal agencies alongside prosecutors from the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section.

“Working alongside our domestic and international partners, the Justice Department will be relentless in our efforts to hold accountable every person complicit in the commission of war crimes, torture, and other grave violations during the unprovoked conflict in Ukraine,” Garland said. 

The attorney general also said that the DOJ is expanding its KleptoCapture Task Force, which was launched in March to carry out U.S. sanctions, export controls and economic countermeasures against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his operatives.   

The department’s Office of International Affairs will send two attorneys overseas – one to a U.S. Embassy in Europe and the other to a U.S. Embassy in the Middle East – to help coordinate mutual legal assistance and extraditions with prosecutors in European Union member states. An expert U.S. prosecutor will also be sent to help Ukraine and other partners combat Russian kleptocracy, corruption and money laundering. 

“There is no hiding place for war criminals,” Garland warned. 

Since launching the KleptoCapture Task Force eight days after the war began on Feb. 24, the DOJ has seized Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg’s superyacht, as well as the Russia-affiliated Hydra darknet market, which is known to be the world’s largest illegal marketplace on the dark web. 

The department also sanctioned Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev and secured a warrant to take two airplanes, worth over $400 million, from already sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.  

Two weeks ago, Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov became the latest Kremlin crony to have his superyacht seized. The yacht has an estimated $300 million price tag. 

Meanwhile, other countries are also joining Ukraine’s efforts to hold war criminals accountable. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine joined a joint war crimes investigation launched by Eurojust, the European Union agency tasked with coordinating judicial cooperation among member states. The joint probe began six days after Russia started invading Ukraine in February.

Ukrainian officials, however, are not waiting until the investigation is complete to begin prosecutions.  

Last month, Ukrainian courts sentenced a 21-year-old Russian sergeant to life in prison for shooting an unarmed civilian in the head and two Russian soldiers were sentenced to 11 1/2 years in prison for shelling civilian buildings. 

Follow @EmilyZantowNews
Categories / Criminal, Government, International, Politics

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