Germany’s attorney general, Peter Frank, called Saturday for the opening of an international war crimes prosecution in Ukraine after confirming that German investigators have found «indications» of such crimes during their probe of the war with Russia.
«It is up to the international community to decide whether this process will take place through the International Criminal Court or a Special Court for Ukraine,» he made known in statements to the Sunday newspaper ‘Die Welt’, picked up in advance by the DPA agency.
Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office launched a «structural investigation» into war crimes in the conflict in March 2022 to gather as much evidence as possible, although it has not yet targeted specific defendants.
The ultimate intention is to hold state leaders responsible, «i.e. those who made the political decision to start a war» and those who implemented «this decision at the highest military level,» according to the prosecutor.
Frank confirmed that, so far, investigators have collected «indications» of war crimes in the framework of an investigation that is now focusing on the massacre in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, for which the Russian army has been held responsible, and on the attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
Russian troops left Bucha, on the outskirts of Kiev, on April 1. Hundreds of bodies have since been recovered, according to local authorities. Most of the bodies had bullet wounds and satellite images show that bodies were already lying in the streets before the withdrawal. Russia has denied any involvement.
On the other hand, the German prosecutor has indicated that investigators are still unable to find evidence at this stage to prove Russian involvement in the explosions in late September last year on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, although the investigations are not yet complete.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
