Ukrainian prosecutors document possible evidence of Russian war crimes. The legal processing of the war is yet to come. Kyiv is also calling for international support.
The Ukrainian special investigator for the documentation of war crimes, Gyundus Mamedov, has called for international support in the prosecution. The judiciary can open proceedings in other countries if there are grounds for doing so, Mamedow told the German Press Agency in Kiev. This could be the case if victims of the Russian war of aggression are in countries like Germany. “We have documented around 500 cases of violations of international humanitarian law since September last year. Other institutions must be involved in identifying those involved,” demanded Mamedov.
It is exemplary that the German judiciary has carried out legal proceedings for crimes committed in the Syrian war. He now also hopes that the federal government will “commit to the creation of an international institution that is completely dedicated to solving the crimes against Ukraine.”
Mamedov continued: “The very first crime that should be dealt with is, of course, the act of unlawful aggression against an independent state. The people who took part in this crime are the military-political elite in Russia.”
“It’s likely that not all crimes will be solved”
From 2016, Mamedov was the Ukrainian prosecutor for Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in violation of international law in 2014, and from 2019 to 2021, he was Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine. He now leads a working group that collects evidence of violations of international humanitarian law – principles and rules for those involved in armed conflict. When asked whether violations of international humanitarian law had also been committed by the Ukrainian side and should also be prosecuted, he said: “I don’t deny that either.”
For his work, Mamedov also travels into the so-called gray zone of the conflict, a no-man’s land in which the civilian state has little or no influence at all or at times due to ongoing fighting or close proximity to the front. It can involve expulsion, mistreatment or rape, attacks on ambulances or the destruction of cultural property.
“Considering the conditions in which we work now, it is likely that not all crimes will be solved,” he said. “Some things are missing: there is the imperfection of the legislation. There is a lack of specialists who are specifically trained in this type of crime. There is also a lack of technical equipment for investigations so that there are no doubts about the evidence.”
Authorities “cannot cope with the magnitude”
Ultimately it’s also about the scale. From 2014 to 2022, 30,000 crimes were registered. And since 2022, over 100,000 cases have been registered. “It is likely that national law enforcement agencies cannot handle this scale. They simply cannot manage this number,” he said.
He himself is not involved in the criminal prosecution, but rather passes the evidence on to the prosecutors. “There is the whole range of war crimes. There are signs of crimes against humanity, signs of the beginning of genocide, the waging of a war of aggression. All crimes committed by the Russian army are subject to one or more of these characteristics.”
Mamedov is also the founder of an alliance of human rights organizations, the Ukraine-5am Coalition, which collects evidence of war crimes and violations of international law.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
