In 2024, Ukrainian courts handed down more than 40 verdicts against those accused of violating the laws and customs of war

Over the past year, Ukrainian courts handed down 41 verdicts under Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: violation of the laws and customs of war. 40 of these sentences were passed in absentia.

This was reported by the Media Initiative for Human Rights with reference to the Unified State Register of Court Decisions.

Source: mipl.org.ua

“Currently, Article 438 of the Criminal Code is the main article under which war crimes cases are considered in Ukraine. It provides for criminal liability, in particular, for ill-treatment of prisoners of war or civilians, looting of national property in the occupied territories and the use of means of warfare prohibited by international law,” the statement said.

As noted, in 2024, Ukraine convicted 66 people for such crimes, 60 of whom were Russian citizens and 6 were Ukrainians. Among the Ukrainians are, for example, an adviser to the so-called “head of the DPR” who abducted civilians; a judge from Crimea who decided to expel Ukrainians from the peninsula; and a resident of Kherson region who helped Russians detain and torture people during the occupation. Russian military personnel were tried for ill-treatment of civilians and for shooting civilians.

According to the data of the MHI, last year the courts of Chernihiv region became the record holders in terms of the number of sentences under Article 438 of the Criminal Code. There were 14 verdicts handed down there over the year. 9 verdicts were handed down by the courts of Kyiv and Kyiv region, 5 – Kharkiv, 4 – Odesa, 3 – Sumy. Two verdicts were handed down in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and one each in Dnipropetrovs’k and Mykolaiv regions. Only 8 of these verdicts were appealed in the courts of appeal, but remained unchanged.

According to MIPL journalists, most of the Russians accused of war crimes remain at large. However, there are witnesses and victims who are ready to testify against them. In such cases, the court has the right to apply a special in absentia procedure for considering the case – in absentia – that is, in the absence of the accused.

In cases of war crimes trials in absentia, Ukraine could count on Interpol member states to detain and extradite citizens convicted of war crimes to serve their sentences. However, this is not happening. As explained by the MIPL journalists in their investigation, Interpol is an infrastructure, not a law enforcement agency, and Interpol officers do not directly perform police functions, i.e. they do not have the right to arrest suspects or use service weapons.

Source: ZMINA

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