Tuesday, 11 October ‘22

ICC Investigators Can Work in Ukraine

As of October 1, investigators from the International Criminal Court (ICC) have the official right to work on war crimes cases perpetrated by Russian forces in Ukraine.

On September 20, President Volodymyr Zelensky enacted a new law which provides the ICC with the jurisdiction to support the prosecutor general’s office in such investigations.

The bill also expands ICC’s powers and experts can now independently conduct investigative and procedural actions on the territory of Ukraine upon agreement with the prosecutor general.

Mass Grave Exhumation in Lyman city, Donetsk Region

Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have started the exhumation of two mass burial sites found in Lyman, the eastern town Ukrainians recaptured on October 2.

The Ukrainian governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said one burial site had about 200 individual graves containing civilian bodies, while preliminary information indicates that the other contains the bodies of soldiers.

Police investigation teams and forensic experts have exhumed the first 20 bodies. Yevhen Zhukov, the head of the national police’s patrol department, stated that whole families were buried, including young children.

Procedure for Released POWs

The Ukrainian minister of internal affairs adopted a new internal procedure to assist freed prisoners of war. Announced on October 4, this includes the provision of physical treatment, psychological support, prosthetics and rehabilitation, as well as support for family members.

The new procedure will also ease the renewal of lost documents, including service cards, passports, driving licence and bank cards. Released prisoners are entitled to a one-time payment of 100,000 hryvnas (about 2,700 US dollars).

 Lack of Judges Delays Treason Case

A local court assigned to the case of Svitlana Ogol, a resident of the village of Kashpero-Mykolaivka in Mykolaiv region accused of treason in wartime, did not have enough judges to conduct the trial.

Ogol faces between 15 years and life imprisonment as she is accused of collaborating with Russian troops and sharing sensitive information during the occupation of the village. Ukraine’s supreme court ruled that the Bashtan district court should proceed as it registered the case, but on October 6, it was unable to allocate judges for its consideration. Only two judges work in this court.

On August 22, a new bill came into force stating that during martial law, indictments are considered by courts within whose territorial jurisdiction the crimes were committed. Criminal proceedings in the court of first instance regarding crimes punishable by life imprisonment require three judges, or, at the request of the accused, by a jury court consisting of two judges and three jurors.

New War Crimes from Kharkiv Region

Ukrainian law enforcement officers have recorded new crimes Russian troops committed in the Kharkiv region during the occupation. Ukraine’s armed forces recaptured large areas in the region during a counter-offensive that started in mid-September.

Corpses of civilians with signs of torture have been discovered. In the Kupyansk-Vuzlovy settlement police recorded four civilians shot in a cellar and discovered the bodies of two men in their 60s with their hands tied. The prosecutor’s  office in the Kharkiv region also reported that, during an inspection of a recreation centre in the settlement of Novoplatonivka, the bodies of two civilians aged between 30-35 years were found handcuffed.