Polish MP: ICC gets interested in report on Russians’ crimes in Donbas
The report on crimes committed by Russians in Donbas in 2014, submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC), has attracted interest in The Hague.
This was posted on Facebook by Malgorzata Gosiewska, the member of the Polish Parliament, the deputy chair of the Polish Parliament’s lower house commission for foreign affairs, who personally submitted the document.
“Statement of suspicion of committing a number of crimes under the Rome Statute and the report with evidence on 500 pages was received with great interest. The meeting [with representatives of the Office of the ICC Prosecutor] lasted one hour and a half. In particular, the methodology used in gathering evidence of crimes and identifying criminals was discussed,” Gosiewska wrote.
According to her, duration of the meeting as well as detailed nature of questions from the ICC representatives, give a reason to believe that “the matter was taken very seriously.”
“Now the materials will be studied from the legal and factual perspectives. Then, the prosecutor’s office will make a decision on investigation against the persons mentioned in the report,” Gosiewska stressed.
She added that the evidence base could be supplemented after the investigation was launched, for example, by information from other witnesses.
Gosiewska added that she had submitted the documents with the assistance of the Polish representation in The Hague.
The report is based on more than 60 interviews of captives, taken by Polish and Ukrainian volunteers. The captives talk about crimes of deprivation of freedom, physical and mental tortures, killings, which Russians were involved in.
The document was recently presented in the European Parliament in Brussels and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in Kyiv. A series of presentations of the report on crimes of Russians in Donbas may be soon held in the national parliaments of the EU countries – the Baltic countries, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and possibly a number of Western countries.
