International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan has announced that he has deployed a team of forensic experts to Ukraine to participate in the investigation of war crimes.
“I can confirm that today my Office has deployed a team of 42 investigators, forensic experts and support personnel to Ukraine to advance our investigations into crimes falling into the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and provide support to Ukrainian national authorities. This represents the largest ever single field deployment by my Office since its establishment,” the ICC prosecutor said in a statement released on Tuesday.
According to the prosecutor, during this mission, his Office will focus on a set of core objectives aimed at “accelerating our independent investigations and strengthening synergy of investigative action with national authorities on the ground in Ukraine.” “Through the deployment of a team of investigators, we will further expand lead development and collect testimonial accounts relevant to military attacks that may constitute Rome Statute crimes. Through close cooperation with the Ukrainian authorities, our forensic experts will map the existing action of national crime scene investigators in order to trace workflows and strengthen chain of custody with respect to hard evidence,” the prosecutor said the statement.
In this regard, Khan expressed “sincere appreciation to the Government of the Netherlands whose strong cooperation in recent weeks has facilitated the secondment of a significant number of Dutch national experts to my Office in support of this mission.” “This collaboration will significantly enhance the impact of our forensic and investigative actions on the ground. In real terms, it will allow us to collect more testimonial accounts, support the identification of relevant forensic and digital materials and ensure that information and evidence is collected in a manner that strengthens its admissibility in future proceedings before the ICC,” Khan said.
The prosecutor said it is essential that the work of all actors seeking to support accountability efforts in Ukraine “benefit from effective coordination and communication.” “In doing so, we will significantly strengthen the impact of our collective work in establishing the truth. Reflecting this, the team deployed by my Office today will also engage with a team of French forensic experts on the ground in Ukraine in order to ensure continuity and continuation of their work with respect to the identification of remains, ballistics analysis and the storage and preservation of forensic evidence. We will also be engaging with teams deployed by other States in Ukraine in order to comprehensively map existing activities and strengthen coordination across all actors. It is my intention to ensure that this collaborative work is then continued through the consistent presence of my Office on the ground,” Khan said.
As it is known, during the war that Russia launched against Ukraine on February 24, the Russian military committed a number of crimes that may fall under the Rome Statute.
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