:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/YWX7PJ7T7T4VKIT2M6XNLMJP2E.jpg "Attorneys General from 7 countries agree to establish a center in The Hague to try Russian crimes in Ukraine 1")
The attorneys general of the countries of the Joint research group launched by the European agency of justice Eurojust signed this Saturday in Lviv an agreement for the creation of a International Center for the Prosecution of the Crimes of Aggression in The Hague.
The representatives of Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania sealed the document at the United for Justice international conference that began Friday in the western Ukrainian city and seeks to establish mechanisms to prosecute Russian crimes in Ukraine.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin noted that the creation of such a center is the first step towards the creation of a special tribunal for the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine for which the Russian political and military elite must be held responsible.
Kostin expressed the expectation of that the center begins with the task of collecting evidence next July.
Eurojust President Ladislav Hamran confirmed that the base will be the agency’s headquarters in The Hague and urged international partners to send their experts, prosecutors and investigators to participate in the initiative.
Mechanisms for guarantee justice for the victims of assaults, sexual crimes and deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Metsola reiterated the European Union’s (EU) commitment to bringing perpetrators of war crimes to justice and described the creation of the International Center in The Hague as an important step.
Zelenska, for her part, pointed out that the number of rapes recorded during the war shows that the Russian army uses the deliberate sexual violence as a physical and psychological weapon against the Ukrainian population.
He said the prosecution of these and other war crimes is needed “as a precedent” so that would-be aggressors know that “This type of act will not go unpunished.”
In this sense, Pramila Patten, the United Nations Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict, recalled that the UN Human Rights Committee has documented thousands of these crimes against men, women and even children.
Spanish State Attorney General Álvaro García Ortiz also took part in the conference, reiterating Spain’s willingness to help clarify Russia’s war crimes and seek formulas to prosecute those responsible. .
García Ortiz stressed the importance of reaching a broad consensus to that these crimes be prosecuted at the international level and not only under national jurisdiction and recalled that Spain has sent specialized police and forensic officers to Ukraine to collect evidence of possible war crimes.
With information from EFE
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