DENVER — The U.S. Justice Department is cooperating with the International Criminal Court and supporting Ukrainian prosecutors finishing up warfare crime investigations, Attorney General Merrick Garland mentioned Monday as he reaffirmed his division’s help greater than a 12 months after the Russian invasion.
Congress not too long ago allowed for brand spanking new U.S. flexibility in helping the court docket with investigations into overseas nationals associated to Ukraine, and the Justice Department might be a key a part of the United States’ cooperation, Garland mentioned.
“We are not waiting for the hostilities to end before pursuing justice and accountability. We are working closely with our international partners to gather evidence and build cases so that we are ready when the time comes to hold the perpetrators accountable,” he mentioned in a speech to the American Bar Association in Denver.
He appointed a prosecutor to serve at a middle opened final month in The Hague to help nations constructing circumstances in opposition to senior Russian leaders for the crime of aggression. International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression won’t difficulty indictments or arrest warrants for suspects however will as a substitute help investigations already underway in Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
The ICC doesn’t have jurisdiction to prosecute aggression in Ukraine as a result of Russia and Ukraine haven’t ratified the Rome Statute that based the court docket, although Ukraine‘s prosecutor normal has mentioned they plan to affix.
The United States additionally isn’t an ICC member state. Since the Treaty of Rome, which established the court docket, took impact, successive U.S. administrations starting throughout Bill Clinton’s presidency have taken a largely fingers off strategy towards the ICC as a consequence of considerations it would open investigations and prosecute American troopers or senior officers.
Although it’s not a member of the court docket, the U.S. has cooperated with the ICC up to now on warfare crimes points, notably throughout the Obama administration when Washington contributed proof to the investigation into atrocities allegedly dedicated by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda and surrounding states in east Africa.
However, American antipathy towards the tribunal reached new heights throughout the Trump administration when it imposed sanctions on the previous ICC chief prosecutor and a number of other aides for pursuing investigations into alleged warfare crimes dedicated by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and Israeli servicemembers within the West Bank and Gaza.
The Biden administration rescinded these sanctions shortly after taking workplace and its choice to actively help the court docket with Ukraine investigations marks one other step towards cooperation with the ICC.
The Justice Department is giving wide-ranging help to Ukraine, from coaching on prosecuting environmental crimes to assist growing a safe digital case-management system for greater than 90,000 suspected atrocity crimes. Garland additionally touted the $500 million seized property and over three dozen indictments the division has handed all the way down to implement sanctions.
“Ukraine must do three things simultaneously: it must fight a war; it must investigate war crimes; and it must ensure that a just society comes out on the other side of the war,” he mentioned. The Justice Department is “honored to stand with them.”
Garland additionally inspired extra personal attorneys to volunteer to assist Ukrainian victims. He recalled how his grandmother and his spouse’s household had been in a position to flee Europe as refugees to the United States and keep away from the Holocaust. Other family had been killed by the Nazis.
“We do not know if anyone involved in their deaths were held accountable,” Garland mentioned. “The families of the victims of the current atrocities in Ukraine deserve to know what happened to their loved ones. They deserve justice.”
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Whitehurst reported from Washington. AP diplomatic author Matt Lee in Washington contributed.
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