German Foreign Minister Baerbock calls for establishment of special tribunal to investigate crimes of Russian leadership in Ukraine

It is reported by DW.

According to Baerbok, she discussed with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba the possibility of creating a special tribunal that would launch an investigation against the Russian leadership and bring them to justice.

"There needs to be a tribunal that can investigate the Russian leadership and bring them to justice," Baerbock said in a speech at the Academy of International Law in The Hague, where the International Criminal Court is based.

"This could be a court based on the Ukrainian criminal code, supplemented by international elements, located outside of Ukraine and established with financial support from partners, staffed by prosecutors and judges from different countries to ensure its impartiality and legitimacy," Baerbock said.

The German Foreign Ministry explained that the new special tribunal in The Hague should complement the International Criminal Court in cases where it cannot act due to a gap in legal norms.

According to Baerbock, it is about establishing "justice for victims, without which there can be no peace". She stressed that it is about "people in Bucha, Kharkiv and Mariupol, victims of rape, kidnapping and murder".

Germany’s top diplomat also called for the reform of the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

In her opinion, the legal framework of the Criminal Court should be adjusted so that in the future it would be possible to prosecute the crime of "aggression". It should be sufficient if the state that was attacked falls under the jurisdiction of the Criminal court. She stressed that aggression should be prosecuted "as well as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes".

• On January 4, Annalena Baerbock called on the world not to remain silent about the war crimes of the Russian Federation and warned against seeking compromises with the aggressor state