LONDON/THE HAGUE: Britain will send investigators to Ukraine to help gather evidence of war crimes, including sexual violence, its foreign minister said on Friday.
Both Ukrainian prosecutors and the International Criminal Court (ICC) are investigating potential war crimes in Ukraine since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, which the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” to demilitarise its neighbor.
Moscow denies committing war crimes in Ukraine or targeting civilians during a war that has killed thousands, devastated many cities and towns and forced five million people, mostly women and children, to flee abroad.
Speaking after meeting with ICC officials, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said a British team would head to Ukraine in May with a special emphasis on investigating rape as a possible war crime.
“It’s done to subjugate women and destroy communities and we want to see it stopped,” she said.
“This is about collecting a wide range of evidence, witness statements, forensic evidence, and video evidence,” she said outside the court building in The Hague.
BAN ON RUSSIAN ENERGY
Separately, Truss met with her Dutch counterpart Wopke Hoekstra to discuss the need for further sanctions on Russia, including a halt on purchasing Russian fossil fuels.
The two NATO allies have been closely aligned on Ukraine policy, with both supporting the supply of heavy weaponry for its war effort. Both also support a full ban on Russian energy exports to Europe, including gas, by the end of 2022.
Truss said Britain endorses prosecuting Russian leaders for the war crime of aggression — a thorny question under international law.
The ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes committed on Ukrainian soil, including by Russian soldiers, but cannot bring aggression charges since Russia is not a member of the court.
Some politicians and legal experts have called for the establishment of a separate tribunal as the quickest way to hold Russian politicians responsible for an illegal war.
“We want to see all the crimes prosecuted,” Truss said.
However, she added, “I’m concerned that if there’s focus on setting up an additional tribunal that will divert resources away from this vital evidence collecting.”
UK to send investigators to Ukraine, focus on sex violence, says Truss
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UK to send investigators to Ukraine, focus on sex violence, says Truss
- Both Ukrainian prosecutors and the ICC are investigating potential war crimes in Ukraine since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion
- Liz Truss said a British team would head to Ukraine in May with a special emphasis on investigating rape as a possible war crime
Sudanese man jailed in UK for murdering asylum hotel worker
- Deng Chol Majek followed Rhiannon Whyte, 27, to a railway station in October 2024
- He stabbed her 23 times to the head, chest and arm with a screwdriver
LONDON: A Sudanese asylum seeker was jailed on Friday for a minimum of 29 years for murdering a woman who worked at the hotel in central England where he and other migrants were being housed.
Anti-immigration activists have seized on other criminal cases involving asylum seekers, predominantly young men, in hotels to argue that they are a danger to nearby communities.
Last summer, a number of protests at asylum hotels across England – sparked by the arrest of an Ethiopian asylum seeker for sexually assaulting a teenage girl and a woman – turned violent.
The Labour government, nervous of the rise of the anti-immigration Reform UK party in opinion polls, has promised to clamp down on illegal immigration and, by 2029, to stop placing asylum seekers in hotels while their cases are processed.
Deng Chol Majek followed Rhiannon Whyte, 27, to a railway station in October 2024 after she finished her shift.
He stabbed her 23 times to the head, chest and arm with a screwdriver. She died in hospital three days later.
Majek was convicted in October and sentenced on Friday to life imprisonment with a minimum of 29 years at Coventry Crown Court, where some anti-immigration protesters gathered outside for the hearing.
Judge Michael Soole said the murder was “particularly vicious” and told Majek there had been a “chilling composure in every aspect of your behavior.”
