KYIV: Ukraine’s parliament voted on Wednesday to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), as Kyiv seeks to bring Russia to justice over war crimes it is alleged to have committed throughout its invasion.
The ICC prosecutes grave offenses like genocide and crimes against humanity, and has the power to issue arrest warrants that its 124 members are obliged to execute.
Ukraine signed the Rome Statute that founded the court in 2000, but had not ratified it, as some political and military figures expressed fears Ukrainian soldiers could face prosecution.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba called Wednesday’s move “historic” after Parliament adopted the ratification of the statute.
“This has been a long journey full of challenges, myths, and fears. None of them have been true. And today, we are finally there,” he said in a post on X.
The ratification controversially included a reference to Article 124 of the Rome Statute, which would exempt Ukrainian citizens from being prosecuted for war crimes for seven years, ruling party lawmaker Yevgeniya Kravchuk said on Facebook.
“The ratification of the Rome Statute will simultaneously facilitate greater opportunities for punishing Russians and increase the isolation of Russia,” she said.
Last year, the court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children’s ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova over the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and Russian-controlled territory.
Kyiv had long faced pressure from rights groups to ratify the treaty as well as from the European Union, which Ukraine has sought to join.
Ukraine parliament votes to join International Criminal Court
https://arab.news/bdvns
Ukraine parliament votes to join International Criminal Court
- The ICC prosecutes grave offenses like genocide and crimes against humanity
- Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba calls Wednesday’s move ‘historic’
Second doctor in Matthew Perry overdose case sentenced to home confinement
- Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October
- Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service
LOS ANGELES: A second California doctor was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months of home confinement for illegally supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s fatal drug overdose in a hot tub in 2023.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October to a single felony count of conspiracy to distribute the prescription anesthetic and surrendered his medical license in November.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service. As part of his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another physician Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who in turn supplied the drug to Perry, though not the dose that ultimately killed the performer. Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful drug distribution, was sentenced earlier this month to 2 1/2 years behind bars.
He and Chavez were the first two of five people convicted in connection with Perry’s ketamine-induced death to be sent off to prison.
The three others scheduled to be sentenced in the coming weeks — Jasveen Sangha, 42, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen;” a go-between dealer Erik Fleming, 56; and Perry’s former personal assistant, Iwamasa, 60.
Sangha admitted to supplying the ketamine dose that killed Perry, and Iwamasa acknowledged injecting Perry with it. It was Iwamasa who later found Perry, aged 54, face down and lifeless, in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
An autopsy report concluded the actor died from the acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors in causing him to lose consciousness and drown.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s NBC television series “Friends.”
According to federal law enforcement officials, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusions for treatment of depression and anxiety at a clinic where he became addicted to the drug.
When doctors there refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous providers elsewhere willing to exploit Perry’s drug dependency as a way to make quick money, authorities said. Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties that is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. It also has seen widespread abuse as an illicit party drug.
