International criminal law

Here are the highlights of events related to the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:

Ukraine is investigating 26,000 cases of war crimes

Ukraine is investigating almost 26,000 cases of alleged war crimes committed since the Russian invasion began in February and has indicted 135 people.

The Prosecution wrote that, between 2004 and 2022, it registered a total of 814 cases referred by the Prosecution of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY.

Idriz Smajic managed to survive the genocide of Bosniaks from Srebrenica in July 1995, but was injured and had to have part of one leg amputated because he couldn't get immediate medical help.

"We believe that any speculation about organizing a 'new Nuremberg trial' against Russian soldiers allegedly responsible for crimes in Ukraine is inadmissible," the embassy's official Telegram channel said.

The failure of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to act related to the crimes committed by Kosovo Albanian leaders, has led Pristina government to believe they are "completely innocent," said Gennady Kuzmin, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Mission of Russia to the United Nations.

A new report published by the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre on Friday accuses the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor's Office of being "extremely inefficient", while also raising concerns that over a half of the court hearings in war crime trials last year were postponed for COVID-related reasons.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seems to offer a convenient precedent for Turkey to increase its military aggression against Greece

“It is not a place where those who call the Turkish nation perpetrators of massacre & genocide will be able to exist, or look at us straight in the eye”

Andrew Clapham, a British professor of international law, told BIRN that focusing on the crime of aggression could mean that "individuals who ordered and planned the invasion" are brought to justice at a special tribunal.

Karim Khan, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, said on Monday that he has decided to proceed "as rapidly as possible" with opening an investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.