The Presidentʼs Office responded to the proposal of the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, not to create a special tribunal to convict the Russian leadership for the crime of aggression but to hold it on the basis of the International Criminal Court. The Presidentʼs Office considers this idea bad.
Deputy Chairman of the Presidentʼs Office Andriy Smirnov and Ambassador of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on special assignments Anton Korynevych told about this, answering the question of the "Babel" correspondent.
According to Khan, it is worth changing the Rome Statute in order to be able to start a process against the Russian elite. This will make it possible to hold a trial on the basis of the International Criminal Court. However, the Presindetʼs Office believes that the process of changes to the charter may drag on for a very long time.
Smirnov noted that, at the moment, they do not see the possibility of how the ICC can start this process. He also emphasized that so far, only such statements have been made by Khan, but there have been no relevant proposals or actions.
"If you simply disagree with the creation of a special tribunal, it is harmful because, in fact, Karim Khan is doing a lot of useful things [...] If this is not a political statement, but an actual idea, then a road map should be attached to this idea so that the entire civilized world and Ukraine saw how it should work," he explained.
According to him, all countries that have ratified the Rome Statute must agree to its change. This process can take about ten years.
Smirnov added that if the prosecutor knows how to circumvent Putinʼs sovereign immunity by applying the ICC withinstandardormal time frame, he should say so. He emphasized that it is absurd that it takes 10 years to launch the mechanism of the special tribunal and two months to file an indictment.
According to Smirnov, the created special tribunal can conduct such a process and render a verdict much faster. In addition, he said that during nine months of the invasion, the International Criminal Court still has not registered any proceedings for war crimes by the Russians because the mandate of the ICC does not allow t.
In addition, he emphasized that even if Ukraine ratifies the Rome Statute and Russia does not, it will still not allow the ICC to investigate these crimes.
At the same time, the Ambassador of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on special assignments Anton Korynevych reminded that the crime of aggression appeared in the Rome Statute in 1998. However, the ICC received the right to investigate such crimes only after a generally accepted definition of this crime is adopted. And negotiations about this continued until 2010.
He explained that changing the jurisdiction of the Rome Statute can take years and decades, and even if it happens, it will not be possible to judge what is happening in Ukraine now because " it does not have a retrospective effect."
- On November 23, the European Parliament adopted a resolution recognizing the Russian Federation as a state sponsor of terrorism. The parliamentarians also called for the creation of a special international tribunal.
- Earlier, the Presidentʼs Office complained that Ukraine lacks the USAʼs support in creating a special tribunal over the leadership of Russia. While the United States is not ready for negotiations on this issue, the Ukrainian side wants to see the United States as "one of the leaders of this process."