THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia announced Tuesday they have joined Poland, Lithuanian and Ukraine in a joint investigation into war crimes committed in Ukraine.
The trio made the announcement following a coordination meeting with the International Criminal Court at the headquarters of Eurojust in The Hague, where they met with the prosecutor general of Ukraine, Iryna Venediktova, to discuss how the investigation is progressing.
Six days after Russian troops crossed the border in February, Eurojust - the European Union agency that coordinates judicial cooperation across the bloc - moved to form a joint investigation team. The teams, known as JITs, allow countries to easily share information during criminal investigations.
“There is this common front of legality,” ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan told journalists after the meeting.
Khan’s office has also joined the JIT, a first in the court’s history. He is looking to establish a permanent office in Ukraine.
“We can’t fly in and fly out,” Khan said.
Kyiv hasn’t waited for the ICC investigation, launched in March, to move forward with prosecutions. Last week, a Ukrainian court sentenced a 21-year-old Russian sergeant to life in prison for shooting an unarmed civilian in the head. On Tuesday, another Ukrainian court sentenced two Russian soldiers to 11 1/2 years in prison for shelling civilian buildings.
In response to a question about why the Ukrainian prosecutions were moving so quickly, Venediktova said that in Ukraine people had the opposite question.
“Journalists in Ukraine ask me why so slow? What have you been doing for these months?” she said. Her office has already opened 13,000 investigations into crimes and some legal experts have warned that the rapid pace of prosecutions may compromise the fairness of trials.
The United Nations estimates some 7,000 civilian casualties in the country since major fighting began.
“Never in the history of armed conflict has the legal community responded with such determination,” Ladislav Hamran, president of Eurojust, told reporters.
Ukraine has been aggressively pursuing Russia in both domestic and international countries since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24. Hamran promised that his organization will provide both logistical and financial support to investigators.
The ICC has sent its largest team ever - 42 experts - to collect evidence of ongoing crimes. Nearly half of the team is from the Netherlands. The Dutch have a long history of prosecuting serious cases under universal jurisdiction, a legal principle that allows countries to prosecute crimes that didn’t happen in their territory. Khan said that he hoped other countries would step up when the Dutch investigators need to return home.
The announcement of Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia joining the JIT came as Russian forces were making headway in capturing strategically important Ukrainian cities in the eastern part of the country.
More than 3 million Ukrainians have been displaced, many fleeing to neighboring Poland and Romania. In response to the Russian aggression, countries across the globe have moved to impose sanctions on Moscow.
The EU announced on Tuesday a move to ban most Russian oil imports by the end of the year.
Follow @mollyquell
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
Jan. 6 sentences April 19, 2024 -
