KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday welcomed a decision from the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Russia’s chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, and former defense minister Sergei Shoigu.
The warrants — issued over strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure that constitute alleged war crimes — are the latest in a series of actions by the court over the Ukraine war, including an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“These barbaric missile and drone strikes continue to kill people and inflict damage across Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
“This decision is a clear indication that justice for Russian crimes against Ukrainians is inevitable,” he added.
“Every criminal involved in the planning and execution of these strikes must know that justice will be served. And we do hope to see them behind bars,” the Ukrainian leader wrote on social media.
The two men are accused of the war crimes of directing attacks at civilian objects and causing excessive incidental harm to civilians, as well as the crime against humanity of “inhumane acts” in Ukraine, the ICC said in a statement.
The Ukrainian presidency’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote that “Shoigu and Gerasimov bear individual responsibility” for the strikes.
“This is an important decision. Everyone will be held accountable for evil,” he said.
“Every war criminal should be held accountable,” said Ukraine’s human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets.
The country’s prosecutor general’s office also welcomed the news in a statement.
“This is a new significant step toward full accountability for the aggressor,” it said.
Zelensky says ICC warrants show justice for Russia ‘inevitable’
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Zelensky says ICC warrants show justice for Russia ‘inevitable’
- “This decision is a clear indication that justice for Russian crimes against Ukrainians is inevitable,” Zelensky said
- “Every criminal involved in the planning and execution of these strikes must know that justice will be served“
France’s Le Pen insists party acted in ‘good faith’ at EU fraud appeal
- Le Pen said on her second day of questioning that even if her party broke the law, it was unintentional
- She also argued that the passage of time made it “extremely difficult” for her to prove her innocence
PARIS: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen told an appeals trial on Wednesday that her party acted in “good faith,” denying an effort to embezzle European Parliament funds as she fights to keep her 2027 presidential bid alive.
A French court last year barred Le Pen, a three-time presidential candidate from the far-right National Rally (RN), from running for office for five years over a fake jobs scam at the European institution.
It found her, along with 24 former European Parliament lawmakers, assistants and accountants as well as the party itself, guilty of operating a “system” from 2004 to 2016 using European Parliament funds to employ party staff in France.
Le Pen — who on Tuesday rejected the idea of an organized scheme — said on her second day of questioning that even if her party broke the law, it was unintentional.
“We were acting in complete good faith,” she said in the dock on Wednesday.
“We can undoubtedly be criticized,” the 57-year-old said, shifting instead the blame to the legislature’s alleged lack of information and oversight.
“The European Parliament’s administration was much more lenient than it is today,” she said.
Le Pen also argued that the passage of time made it “extremely difficult” for her to prove her innocence.
“I don’t know how to prove to you what I can’t prove to you, what I have to prove to you,” she told the court.
Eleven others and the party are also appealing in a trial to last until mid-February, with a decision expected this summer.
- Rules were ‘clear’ -
Le Pen was also handed a four-year prison sentence, with two years suspended, and fined 100,000 euros ($116,000) in the initial trial.
She now again risks the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a one-million-euro ($1.16 million) fine if the appeal fails.
Le Pen is hoping to be acquitted — or at least for a shorter election ban and no time under house arrest.
On Tuesday, Le Pen pushed back against the argument that there was an organized operation to funnel EU funds to the far-right party.
“The term ‘system’ bothers me because it gives the impression of manipulation,” she said.
EU Parliament official Didier Klethi last week said the legislature’s rules were “clear.”
EU lawmakers could employ assistants, who were allowed to engage in political activism, but this was forbidden “during working hours,” he said.
If the court upholds the first ruling, Le Pen will be prevented from running in the 2027 election, widely seen as her best chance to win the country’s top job.
She made it to the second round in the 2017 and 2022 presidential polls, before losing to Emmanuel Macron. But he cannot run this time after two consecutive terms in office.
