The Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court has completed a preliminary investigation into the Situation in Ukraine case. ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda stated that as a result of the review process, the situation in Ukraine, in particular in the occupied Crimea, was recognized as meeting the criteria of the Charter for opening an investigation.
“My Office has concluded that there are currently reasonable grounds to believe that a wide range of acts committed in the context of the situation in Ukraine are war crimes and crimes against humanity within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. These findings, which will be discussed in more detail in our annual Preliminary Investigation Reports, include three large groups of victimization: crimes committed in the context of hostilities; crimes committed during detentions; and crimes committed in Crimea. In addition, my Office has concluded that these crimes committed by the various parties to the conflict were also serious enough, both quantitatively and qualitatively, to warrant an investigation by my Office”,- the statement said.
It was recalled that the preliminary investigation into the Situation in Ukraine case was opened on April 24, 2014 on the basis of an ad hoc application by the Government of Ukraine on the recognition of the jurisdiction of the ICC, to which the second application of Ukraine, filed in 2015, was subsequently attached to cover possible crimes that are said to have continued in Ukraine throughout the period from 20 February 2014.