ICC Prosecutor Office to examine new data on crimes against Euromaidan protesters
The Secretariat of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has recently received additional information on the crimes committed during the protests in Kyiv between November 2013 and February 2014 by the Ukrainian authorities against protesters, and after studying the new information, the court may revise its preliminary conclusion that the attacks were not systematic and widespread.
The relevant information can be found in a report, which was published on the ICC website on November 14 and which contains preliminary examination of activities in 2016, in a section dedicated to the situation in Ukraine, which includes more than 20 complaints in relation to crimes committed in the period from November 2013 to February 2014, and more than 48 complaints concerning crimes committed after February 20, 2014 in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
The ICC recalled that in its report on preliminary examination activities in 2015, the Office provided its preliminary analysis of the crimes allegedly committed during the Maidan protest events. "The Office found that while the acts of violence allegedly committed by the Ukrainian authorities between 30 November 2013 and 20 February 2014 could constitute an 'attack directed against a civilian population' under article 7(2)(a) of the Statute, the information available did not provide a reasonable basis to believe that the attack was systematic or widespread under the terms of article 7 of the Statute," the document reads.
The Office however noted that serious human rights abuses had occurred in the context of the Maidan events, and expressed its willingness to reassess its preliminary analysis in the light of any new information.
"In October 2016, the Office received further information that will be subject to close examination," the office said.