Tribunal for Putin: is it possible to achieve the responsibility of the President of Russia for the invasion of Ukraine

International criminal tribunals are associated with the restoration of historical justice and the punishment of serious crimes committed during the war. Does this threaten Putin, and what mechanisms exist? with the BBC.

Photo: IStock

“To reach for absolute evil and arrange the Hague for Putin”—this is how the Ukrainian authorities define the task of a special tribunal for Putin’s crimes against Ukraine. To create it, a group of like-minded countries is now being formed to recognize the jurisdiction of such a temporary court. The European Parliament, NATO, PACE and the OSCE have already partially supported this plan.

On the subject: Found an ally: US intelligence found that Putin buys weapons and missiles from North Korea

Hitler's accomplices in prison uniforms in the dock of the Nuremberg Tribunal, hearing their verdict - death by hanging. Or the sad ex-president of the Republika Srpska Radovan Karadzic - during the reading of the verdict of the Hague Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He was found guilty of 10 of the 11 indicted war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide of Bosnian Muslims.

These moments of historical truth and legal truth gave relief to innocent victims, and to politicians and peoples - hope in the validity of international law. And the world as a whole has a chance to prevent such crimes in the future and preserve humanity.

“The Nuremberg Tribunal recognized the absolute evil that led to the Second World War and punished it. Today we say that Ukraine is faced with the same absolute evil, and the existing legal mechanisms do not reach it,” explains Anton Korinevich, Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who coordinates the issues of the future tribunal.

How is this possible?

It is important to understand that this special tribunal against the leaders of Russia should refer specifically to the crimes of aggression, and not to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, that is, everything derivative of aggression. The latter is already the prerogative of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and we will explain why.

The basis for the formation and launch of such a special tribunal should be an international treaty. At first, several dozen countries can sign it - Ukraine is waiting for this before the end of the year. This will be the first real step.

Others may join later.

If a particular country signs an international agreement on the establishment of a tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, this means that it is ready to refuse any interaction with the Putin regime.

The contract specifies the structure, location and funding of the tribunal.

The next stage will involve the formation of an international judicial and prosecutorial corps. The prosecution from Ukraine will be put forward by the Ukrainian prosecutor. It does not have to be a staff member of the GPU. The main thing is the virtue and moral authority of such a person.

The investigation within the framework of the tribunal, on the basis of the evidence provided by Ukraine, should form an indictment for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. It means the actual dispatch of the Russian leadership of its armed forces to the territory of a sovereign state with the aim of capturing it.

After that, the judge, on the basis of open preliminary proceedings, issues a warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Putin and other leaders of Russia.

If they enter the territory of countries that have recognized the jurisdiction of the tribunal, law enforcement officers must arrest them and hand them over to judges.

It remains an open question whether the court will be able to consider the case further if the accused are not brought to the hearing.

The answer will depend on what the signatories to the treaty on its creation decide. The general practice of international tribunals is that defendants must attend hearings. And it is not allowed to condemn them in absentia.

Dock

According to the Ukrainian authorities, the tribunal should personally charge Vladimir Putin and all members of the Russian Security Council with the crime of aggression. This is actually the Russian top political and military leadership.

Putin heads this body, his deputy is Dmitry Medvedev, and the secretary is Nikolai Patrushev. The Russian Security Council includes 16 high-ranking officials. Among them are the head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

“The goal of my life now is The Hague,” some Ukrainians who escaped from Mariupol said about this. The Ukrainian people have indeed formed a powerful demand for such individual responsibility of the Russian leadership.

“For Putin, The Hague is a special tribunal to punish Russia for the crime of aggression against Ukraine,” says Anton Korinevich, who is coordinating the creation of such an ad hoc trial of Putin.

Russia, at the same time, denies any accusations against it of international crimes. Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin proposed the creation of an international tribunal against Ukraine itself to investigate allegedly its own war crimes. According to him, Iran, Bolivia and Syria could support him.

Putin, Shoigu or Lavrov, like other leaders of state and government, are immune from criminal prosecution in national courts. But in an international tribunal, if other states recognize its jurisdiction, they can indeed be charged with probable international crimes.

Peace support

Today, Ukraine seeks to unite at least half of the UN member states around the idea of ​​a tribunal for the crime of aggression, as explained in the office of the President of Ukraine and the Foreign Ministry. They want to collect the first pool of signatories by the end of 2022.

In April, PACE called for the creation of such a tribunal. It was followed by similar recommendations on the creation of an ad hoc court by the European Parliament. He adopted a resolution that Russia should be punished for war crimes and suggested that the EU launch an aggression tribunal against Ukraine that could issue arrest warrants for the leaders of the Russian Federation.

Separately, European parliamentarians drew attention to the role of Russian military leaders in violations of the laws and customs of war: they must also be brought to justice.

Similar resolutions on a possible international tribunal were adopted by the parliamentary assemblies of the OSCE and NATO.

Who and what is investigating

Ukraine today proposes that the judicial investigation of precisely war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, that is, everything derivative of aggression, be carried out by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

According to its founding document, the Rome Statute, this is its main mission. He can bring to justice both the perpetrators at the level of commanders of regiments or brigades, and the organizers.

The prosecutor of this court, Karim Khan, announced the creation of a permanent office of the court in Ukraine. In May, a group of 42 investigators, experts and employees of the International Criminal Court visited Ukraine.

This court could also investigate Russian aggression. In 2010, the Kampala Amendments were introduced into the charter - rules allowing the ICC to investigate the aggression of one state against another. But Ukraine, like Russia, is not a party to the Rome Charter, which is a condition for investigating this particular crime.

In addition, proceedings before the ICC can take years. Ukraine, on the other hand, is striving for an express pace of creating and launching a tribunal to consider the crime of aggression.

“This crime in international humanitarian law is the “mother of all crimes.” If the aggression had not occurred, then crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes would not have been committed,” says Andrei Smirnov, deputy head of the OP responsible for the creation of the tribunal.

In fact, the modern interpretation of aggression is a development of the concept of a crime against peace, for which the German Nazis were tried in Nuremberg in 1946-1949. At that time, there was no such international criminal body as the ICC. Therefore, the court also considered war crimes and crimes against genocide in addition to crimes against peace.

For example, the interrogation of one of the most influential leaders of Nazi Germany, Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, lasted two days. Prosecutors in the United States, France, Great Britain and the USSR charged him with one international crime after another. The crime against peace was voiced, in particular, by the Soviet prosecutor.

What this prosecutor was talking about prompts parallels with the present.

Prosecutor Rudenko: You admit that the aim of the war against the USSR was the seizure of Soviet territories to the Urals; accession to the empire of the Baltic States, the Crimea, the Caucasus, the Volga regions, the conquest of Germany by Ukraine, Belarus and other areas?

Hermann Goering: I will by no means admit this.

Prosecutor Rudenko: I will remind you of some passages from the protocol: “Crimea must be liberated from all foreigners and populated by Germans...”

Hermann Göring was sentenced to death by hanging. Without waiting for the judicial execution, he committed suicide.

Modern international law is more humane in the field of punishment: for the crime of aggression, the top leadership of the state can be sentenced to life imprisonment or, for example, to 30 years in prison.

Stumbling block

Most of all questions are raised by the extent to which, in general, a tribunal is possible without the accused in the bench, that is, in absentia.

Few believe that in the near future, Putin or other Russian leaders could be detained and brought to trial. Even if there is an international arrest warrant and a fairly large group of countries recognizing it.

However, the indictment of the investigation can be put forward even if Putin remains in the Kremlin.

“Within a few months after the creation of such a tribunal, there may be an indictment, which may say that Russian citizen A, B, C is accused of committing the crime of aggression against Ukraine at the international level,” says Anton Korinevich.

“We should not forget that crimes of aggression, like other international crimes, do not have a statute of limitations,” explains Vitalia Lebed, lawyer, lawyer at the Center for Strategic Affairs of the UHHHR.

And then Ukraine will have to hope that a historic window of opportunity will appear after the change of power in Russia and the likely criminals will be brought to justice. Or, at least, some of the accused will be able to detain in the territory of a third country.

Where is the UN?

Another possible mechanism for investigating Russia's aggression is a special tribunal that could be created by decision of the UN General Assembly.

In 2003, she recommended the creation of such an international body of Themis to investigate the crimes of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

In 2016, it adopted a resolution on international justice for war crimes in Syria, although the process was never launched.

“It would be an easier way. But the aggressor country Russia is a member of the UN and a member of the Security Council. In addition, there are countries there that actually play along with it,” says Andrei Smirnov.

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New York.

In the end, much will depend on Ukraine's willingness to take on its own responsibility for the creation and operation of the tribunal. It remains possible to launch it under Ukrainian national jurisdiction.

In such a tribunal, “Ukrainians must give a clear answer, first of all, to future generations about who committed crimes against their people,” according to Geoffrey Nice, a British lawyer and prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, who tried Slobodan Milosevic.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Difficult, but possible: what services sell goods from foreign stores to Russia and how much it costs

Vakhtang Kikabidze gave the entire fee for his anniversary concert in support of the Ukrainian army

Trump scares wealthy liberals: rich Democrats buy citizenship of other countries, fearing the outcome of the upcoming US presidential election

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.