The Hague’s International Criminal Court says it
can’t launch proceedings upon Ukraine’s request on the illegal annexation of
Crimea by the Russian Federation, the ICC’s spokesperson, Fadi el
Abdallah, has told an UNIAN correspondent in Brussels.
The official says that the ICC may obtain from
2017 a new function of considering cases that relate to the acts of aggression,
including annexation.
There is such provision in the Roman Statute of
the ICC, according to the official, but it will only come into force in 2017.
He said there must be a vote in November, 2017, “to say, do we want to activate
this part of the jurisdiction or not.” “And depending on this vote, we will
know whether this crime will come under the ICC jurisdiction or not,” said the ICC
spokesman.
Besides, the Roman Statute’s member states must
first ratify the amendments, said el Abdallah: “Since it was a new amendment
into a Roman Statute, then the states have to ratify the amendments as well. So
we need at least 30 ratifications of the amendments, plus a final vote for a
crime of aggression to become effectively under the ICC jurisdiction.
Answering a question on whether Ukraine will be
able to lodge a claim with the ICC after the procedure is complete, the
spokesman said: “I don’t think that it will be applicable retroactively. What
have happened before the crime of aggression becomes effective will not be part
of the ICC jurisdiction.”
El Abdallah reminded that the ICC’s jurisdiction
at the moment covers the crimes against humanity war crimes and genocide.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine’s Deputy
Prosecutor General Vitaly Kasko said that the Prosecutor’s Office of the ICC
was considering circumstances in the framework of appeal No.145-VIII by the
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of February 4, 2015 “On recognizing jurisdiction of
the International Criminal Court in regard with the crimes against humanity and
war crimes committed by the Russian authorities and leaders of the DPR and LPR
terrorist organizations, which caused grave consequences and mass murder of the
Ukrainian citizens, handed over to the ICC on September 8, 2015, by Ukraine’s
Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.
Kasko stressed that the ICC did not consider the
issue of Crimea’s annexation by Russia in a separate proceeding.
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