Lawyers of Heavenly Hundred heroes submitted to The Hague further evidence of Russia’s involvement in the crimes during Euromaidan

Today on July 7, the Advocacy Advisory Panel handed over to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (IIC, The Hague) proofs of the involvement of Russian officials in crimes against humanity committed by senior officials of Ukraine during the Revolution of Dignity.

As reported in the press-service of the International Renaissance Foundation.

As noted by the Foundation, this is the third submission of the materials by the Advocacy Advisory Panel in the framework of constant cooperation with the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC. Preliminary materials have been submitted in 2015 and 2016.

The organization reminds that on February 25, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine recognized the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in crimes against humanity by senior officials of the state which led to grave consequences and the massacre of Ukrainian citizens during peaceful protests from November 21, 2013 to February 22, 2014. Based on this statement of the Ukrainian parliament, the Prosecutor of the ICC pre-examines the situation.

In accordance with Article 15 part 2 of the Rome Statute, the ICC Prosecutor may receive written or oral testimony that helps the court carefully and objectively examine the situation. In pursuance of this precept, the lawyers of the families of the Heavenly Hundred heroes provided the above-mentioned evidence. In the future, they will be taken into account when deciding on the commencement of a full investigation by this international court.

As a reminder, in October 2016, the lawyers of the Heavenly Hundred heroes independently collected and handed over to the International Criminal Court new materials testifying on the commission of crimes against Euromaidan.

According to lawyers Markiyan Halabala and Pavlo Dykan, as a result of 2015 the Court in The Hague has not found any signs of scale and systematic nature in the persecution of activists during Euromaidan.

In particular, Dykan reported that by the end of 2015 the ICC Prosecutor’s Office had identified 2 of the 3 required signs to start the trial in the Hague Court.

At the same time, after the additional filing of evidence by the lawyers of the Heavenly Hundred the Court in The Hague announced the continuation of consideration of the possibility of investigating crimes against the Euromaidan activists and readiness to reconsider their previous negative conclusion. Such statement was made by the Court in November 2016.

Markiyan Halabala believes that the possible revision of negative conclusions can be attributed to the public activists’ efforts.

The presentation, in particular, described crimes committed not only in Kyiv, but also in other regional centers throughout Ukraine. The most common crime in the regions was the persecution of AutoMaidan. In second place – illegal imprisonment, which also falls within the Article of the Rome Statue of the ICC.

In their presentation lawyers also covered every episode of Euromaidan in Kyiv, starting from November 30, 2013.