Ukraine: EU welcomes establishment of the International Centre for the Prosecution of Crimes of Aggression 

The agreement to establish the International Centre for the Prosecution of Crimes of Aggression was signed on 3 March.

The amended agreement of the existing Joint Investigation Team at the European Agency Eurojust was signed at the ‘United for Justice’ conference on accountability, which was organised to facilitate the set up of the ICPA within Eurojust structure.

A Joint Investigation Team has been set up on 25 March 2022 with the support of Eurojust to collect evidence and investigate core international crimes committed in Ukraine. The JIT consists of the International Criminal Court, Ukraine, and Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Romania.

The International Centre for the Prosecution of Crimes of Aggression (ICPA) will preserve evidence and prepare the analysis of the evidence for the prosecution for future trials, whether national or international. The ICPA will bring prosecutors together to prepare future cases for prosecution involving crimes of aggression, with the evidence of these types of crime to be stored centrally in a secure location. The US has also formally agreed to step up cooperation between the US and the Joint Investigation Team.

Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President, said at the conference that the EU supports the International Criminal Court and the idea to create a dedicated tribunal to prosecute Russia’s crime of aggression, and that the establishment of the ICPA is the first step in this direction.

“Torture, ill-treatment, sexual violence, and summary executions are known to have been committed by Russian forces. Not even children are being spared. Russia must be held accountable for these horrific crimes. Putin must be held accountable.We must do everything in our power to bring the perpetrators to justice,” said von der Leyen.

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Press release