– The Polish prosecution service is very active in cooperating with the International Criminal Court on Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Collecting evidence of war crimes is assistance for people arriving in Poland from Ukraine, for those who remained there, and for the International Criminal Court – said Deputy Minister of Justice Sebastian Kaleta.
The deputy head of the ministry appealed to the media to inform refugees from Ukraine about the possibility of giving testimony and submitting evidence of the Russians’ criminal activities to Polish investigative authorities.
– Ukraine appealed to the European Union member states to collect evidence of Russian crimes and conduct investigations in this matter. Poland and Lithuania were the first to respond to this appeal, and now other European countries have supported it and begun collecting evidence of crimes in Ukraine – Deputy Minister Sebastian Kaleta emphasized.
– Ukraine needs genuine help, but help carried out through actions, not words. We heard about disconnecting Russia from the SWIFT system, but the sanctions did not cover two Russian banks. Transactions from the remaining Russian banks operating in the European Union were transferred to them – MEP Patryk Jaki noted at the same conference.
The MEP recalled that Poland had warned for years that the European Union should not tie itself to Russia:
It turned out that we were right. Unfortunately, it very often turned out in the Union that Russia’s position was more important than Poland’s position. But the time has finally come to change the way decisions are made by the Union.
Minister Zbigniew Ziobro approached the French presidency so that, during a meeting of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council, the Union countries could establish a common position enabling those responsible for crimes in Ukraine to be held accountable. The proposal was met with approval.
In accordance with the proposals presented by Poland, the justice ministers welcomed the launch of an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague into Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine. They also declared their full support in collecting evidence for the purposes of the investigation. They further expressed their readiness to coordinate the work of prosecutors through EU mechanisms, including the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust).
Moreover, International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan will visit Poland and will also travel to the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing to meet refugees from Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia.
Prosecutor Khan has extensive experience in international courts. Among other roles, he served as a prosecutor or defense counsel before the Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.