The graves of unidentified people killed during the Russian occupation. SERGEI SUPINSKY / AFP
The goal is to “prepare for a possible trial in the future,” Attorney General Peter Frank said. Most of the evidence comes from interviews with Ukrainian refugees.
Germany gatheredhundredsof evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, Attorney General Peter Frank said in an interview published Sunday in which he called for an international mechanism to bring those responsible to justice.
“Right now we are focusing on Butcha and the attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine“, specified Peter Frank, questioned by the newspaper Welt am Sonntag. He added that most of the evidence came from interviews with Ukrainian refugees. The goal is to “prepare for a possible trial in the future – whether in Germany or with one of our international partners or via an international court“, he said.
Peter Frank clarified that his services began to investigate the situation in Ukraine in March 2022. “We do not investigate specific individuals, rather we gather information and evidence“, he said. However, he recognizes that in order to prosecute war crimes suspects in Germany, they would have to be in that country.
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In January, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said she favored the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russian leaders following the invasion of Ukraine, possibly using Ukrainian law.
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Hundreds of bodies
This court should be based abroad with international judges, according to her. “Who do we want to bring to justice? The leaders – those who took the decision to go to war – and those who at the highest level of the army implement this decision“, noted Peter Frank.
Hundreds of bodies were discovered in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha after the Russian army was forced out in March 2022. The massacre prompted a wave of convictions and accusations of war crimes, which Moscow always denied. The prosecutor’s office relied on the principle of universal jurisdiction, which makes it possible to prosecute the most serious crimes regardless of where they were committed, to try Syrians for acts committed during the civil war.
Based on the same principle, a group of people from Burma filed a lawsuit last month in Germany against the military junta, accusing it of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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