ICC involved in investigation of torture of Ukrainian prisoners by enemy - Prosecutor General’s Office
The International Criminal Court is involved in the investigation of the torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians held in the temporarily occupied territories and in Russia.
Yurii Belousov, head of the Department for Combating Crimes Committed in the Context of Armed Conflict of the Prosecutor General's Office, said this in an interview with Ukrinform, Censor.NET reports.
"From what I can tell now, this is one of the areas of our cooperation. The first was the deportation of Ukrainian children. And the ICC continues to investigate this case. The second area was attacks on energy infrastructure. And another area that will gain momentum is torture and ill-treatment in places of detention. We are working with the ICC, so I hope there will be results. I don't know when exactly they will be, but this is definitely in the focus of the ICC's attention," he said.
According to Belousov, the ICC became interested in this area because torture in places of detention is becoming systemic and indicates a corresponding policy of Russia.
He also answered in the affirmative when asked whether this meant that the ICC would soon issue arrest warrants for those responsible for penitentiary institutions in Russia.
"Yes, we can assume that," Belousov said.
He also said that in cases of torture of prisoners of war and civilians, the Ukrainian investigation will be divided by the entities involved in the organisation of this system in Russia.
"The ICC will take the top management, and we will take it a little bit lower and further. We will not focus only on the perpetrators. It will also include the highest military and political leadership. Heads of institutions, heads of departments that coordinate these activities, the FSB or the Federal Penitentiary Service and above - they are in our field of vision," said the head of the OGP War Department.
Earlier, the UN monitoring mission stated that all those interviewed after their release from Russian captivity had reported torture.
