13:41 25.04.2022

Prosecutor General: facts of forced displacement of children may be prospect of proving genocide of Ukrainians

3 min read
Prosecutor General: facts of forced displacement of children may be prospect of proving genocide of Ukrainians

The recognition by parliaments of the actions of the Russian Federation in Ukraine as an act of genocide is political, it is difficult to collect evidence, but investigations into the forced transfer of Ukrainian children to the occupied territories and to the Russian Federation may be promising in this context, Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said.

In an exclusive interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency, answering the question of whether it is possible to classify as "genocide" the crimes of the invaders in Mariupol, Kyiv region and other regions after the recognition of the genocide by the Verkhovna Rada, the Estonian parliament, the Prosecutor General said: "It's a political story. We, the prosecutors, will look at the evidence that we have. Therefore, statements from parliaments are important political statements, but, unfortunately, they do not carry an evidence base."

"When Prosecutor Khan [Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan] was in Kyiv and was asked, he said, "Give me the competence to investigate the genocide, and I will start investigating, and then we'll see what happens," Venediktova said.

At the same time, the Prosecutor General noted: "The forced displacement of children can be a promising link in the evidence base for the genocide.

Speaking about what the evidence should be to confirm the genocide in a legal sense, the Prosecutor General said: "We are laying out the corpus delicti: you need to prove that there is the destruction of a specific group for specific purposes. Here will be a story of the destruction of a civilian, not just as one person, but civilian, because he or she belongs to a specific national group. And this intention will need to be proven in each case. Why is this line with the deportation of children more promising in the investigation? Because we have to establish that there were children here, and now they are there, and that they were moved in this way with such an intention.

According to the Prosecutor General, genocide in all cases is difficult to prove, it is an extremely serious crime.

"As a citizen of Ukraine, I believe that there really is a genocide, because Putin’s intention is not to occupy the east, but to kill Ukraine as a state and kill Ukrainians as a nation. Those who agree to be Maloros will remain alive, and those who say that they are Ukrainians will be destroyed. I say this as a citizen. And as a prosecutor, I have to prove it," Venediktova said.

The Prosecutor General said that there is already a suspicion to Russian journalist Gasparyan for calling for genocide, and Ukrainian prosecutors immediately started working with the article published in RIA, and the examinations are currently being completed.

"In each case, we must conduct investigative actions properly, because if the ICC prosecutor takes the case to The Hague, he must see that we were not just investigating in our own interests, but were investigating objectively," the Prosecutor General said.

AD
AD
AD
AD