According to Jeffrey Nice, who served as a prosecutor during the trial of former Yugoslav President Milosevic, the system of international humanitarian law has failed, and Western countries do not directly call the head of the Kremlin a war criminal.
Russian President Vladimir Putin could be granted immunity from prosecution for war crimes in Ukraine under a specific agreement. This was stated by British lawyer Geoffrey Nice on March 15 at a press conference on the topic “International Military Tribunal: what has changed in a year?”.
Jeffrey Nice, who acted as a prosecutor in the trial of ex-President of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic, supported the idea of forming a special tribunal for military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.
“Aggression is indeed the most relevant crime for which Russians should be tried, so a special tribunal for the crime of aggression is certainly a clearly a good idea,” the lawyer said.
Nice pointed to the existence of a large amount of evidence that the President of the Russian Federation is directly involved in the violation of international humanitarian law by the Russian army in Ukraine. At the same time, the International Criminal Court has not yet called the Russian president responsible for crimes against humanity.
“Why is the ICC, which, as I understand it, intends to submit indictments to the judges, is acting so slowly? Why are governments and their leaders so slow and interns in relation to Putin and do not say directly that he is a criminal,” Jeffrey Nice was indignant.
Press conference on the topic “International military tribunal: what has changed over the year?
The lawyer stated that the system of international humanitarian law has failed, and Vladimir Putin in the future may avoid prosecution for war crimes.
According to Nice, if the ICC still charges the president of the aggressor country, this will probably contribute to obtaining compensation for the damage caused to Ukraine by the Russian occupiers.
During the press conference, Anthony Borden, director of the Institute for War and Peace Studies, also noted that he was struck by the work of Ukrainian prosecutors and added that the scale of the crimes they have to deal with is enormous.
Establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine
On Tuesday, March 7, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba announced his intention to prosecute Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, depriving them of their “immunity” from persecution.
The diplomat also said that 30 states, including the G7 countries, have already supported the creation of an international tribunal for the Kremlin’s elites.
As of March 14, 32 countries have already joined the international coalition to create a Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine and bring the military and political leadership of the Russian Federation to justice.
Oleg Gavrish, chief consultant to the office of the head of the President’s Office, said at a press conference on March 14 that Ukraine expects the UN General Assembly to adopt the first decision on a resolution regarding the tribunal over the Russian Federation in April.
The judge of the People’s Court in The Hague, Stephen Rap, on the air of the national telethon on March 5, noted that a successful vote of the UN General Assembly is necessary to establish a tribunal over Vladimir Putin. We are talking about at least 90 votes.
According to a statement by Latvian Prosecutor General Juris Stukans dated March 1, a tribunal to investigate war crimes of the Russian army, if desired, can be created in one day. This is due to the fact that during the year of a full-scale war, special services and international institutions recorded a large number of crimes and collected evidence.
