Today at 12:05
Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska said that it is possible that the final vision of the format of the Special Tribunal for the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine will be achieved this fall.
He said this in a comment to an Ukrinform correspondent in The Hague.
“Movement is happening. Of course, negotiations on the creation of the tribunal have dragged on. The third year of the war. But recently, the information received by colleagues who participate in the meetings of the so-called Core Group – these are the countries that are actually negotiating the tribunal, they have recently come very far. The approximate format of the tribunal, which seems optimal to the negotiators, is more or less defined. Everything looks more or less optimistic. There are chances that this fall, perhaps, we will reach some final compromises and visions of the format of the tribunal, but again, everything depends on the negotiating group and on the vision of the governments and parliaments of the participating countries. That is, at the level of negotiators, as my colleagues from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, colleagues from the Council of Europe tell me, they have an understanding that the process is moving, and there is hope that a certain common compromise will be reached on the creation of a tribunal and taking into account the interests of Ukraine and our partners,” Maliuska said.
According to him, “the key problem that was, is, and will remain, which needs to be monitored as a marker of the success or failure of the negotiations, is the possibility of condemning Putin and his inner circle by such a tribunal.
That is, we need to look at the powers of the tribunal, and this is what the discussion is about. For example, the International Criminal Court (ICC) can definitely hear cases against Putin, but this is a rather rare exception to the general rule.
In general, presidents enjoy the right to immunity. Actually, whether these persons will enjoy immunity from the newly created tribunal, which was the biggest debate among the participants.” He also noted that one of the ideas was to create a special tribunal in The Hague. “Again, symbolically, because The Hague is an international center, the capital of justice and courts,” Maliuska said.
As Ukrinform reported, in April, at the conference “Restoring Justice for Ukraine” in The Hague, 44 states in a special declaration supported the creation of a Special Tribunal for Russia’s crimes.
The countries called for strengthening joint efforts to ensure proper investigation of Russian crimes committed in the war against Ukraine and for holding Russia accountable for all violations of international law.
The countries also support initiatives to use the frozen assets of the Russian Federation in favor of Ukraine and welcomed the proposal of the Netherlands to host a compensation mechanism.
Read also: Japan may transfer income from Russian assets to Ukraine – details
