The Prosecutor’s Office of the ARC qualifies and investigates the facts of the violations of human rights in annexed Crimea as international war crimes. In this regard, the body suggests the adoption of the bill 9438 on the criminalization of war crimes for consideration by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The following statement was voiced on the official Facebook page of the Prosecutor’s Office of the ARC.
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“Today, the conciliatory council of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will decide whether to submit the government bill 9438 to the session hall for consideration. This bill proposes including amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine and expanding the legal basis for bringing to justice those responsible for international crimes in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. In other words, a full implementation of the requirements of international humanitarian law in national criminal law is suggested, considering the fact that crimes against humanity have still not been criminalized” – the report underlines.
It is also mentioned that according to the ARC prosecutor Hunduz Mamedov, the adoption of the aforementioned bill will enable to give a proper assessment of human rights violations in Crimea by criminal legislation and bring those responsible to justice.
“The Crimean Prosecutor’s Office also took part in preparation of the bill, since we investigate human rights violations in Crimea as international war crimes and consider them as such. We handed the suspicion to the so-called ex-prosecutor of the Republic of Crimea Poklons’ka, who persecuted our prisoners of war, considering the fact she breached the Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which is namely a war crime. However, in order to operate more efficient, we need to bring the Ukrainian legislation in line with the requirements of the international humanitarian law, which will enable us to ensure the irreversibility of punishment for violating the rights of citizens of Ukraine by the occupants”- the prosecutor underlined.