OUR European Union And Ukraine agreed today to set up an investigative department in The Hague, a kind of temporary prosecutor’s office, to coordinate the collection of evidence on the “crime of aggression” by Russia.

“We support the establishment of the International Center for the Investigation of Crimes of Aggression in Ukraine (ICPA) in The Hague,” the EU said in a statement. and Ukraine in their joint statement after the EU summit. – Ukrainian, in Kyiv.

Its purpose is to “coordinate the investigation of the crime of aggression against Ukraine, preserve and provide evidence for future trials,” the text says.

The center is seen as a temporary stage before the creation of a special court to try high-ranking Russian officials at the request of Kyiv.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine, but not over Russia’s “crimes of aggression” because Moscow and Kyiv did not sign the Treaty of Rome that founded the court.

The commission offers two options

The crime of attack can be attributed to the country’s most senior political and military officials.

The EU supports the creation of a judicial body with jurisdiction over such crimes, but its precise form raises legal questions.

The European Commission has proposed two options: a special international court based on a multilateral international treaty, or a hybrid judicial body that will refer to Ukrainian law but will consist of international judges.

Ukraine needs a special court that could try Vladimir Putin on the basis of a UN General Assembly resolution.

But some countries, such as Germany, fear that the creation of such a court will not receive sufficient support at the UN and are encouraging the creation of a hybrid court.

According to the Commission, this center will be located at the headquarters of Eurojust, an EU agency. on cooperation in the field of criminal justice.

It will be integrated into the “Joint Study Group” already established by the six EU countries. (Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Romania) and from Ukraine and in which the KPI prosecutor’s office also participates.

^{Source: APE-MEB, AFP.}