Germany seeks global efforts to bring Bucha war criminals to justice

BERLIN: Germany’s prosecutor general said Sunday that his office had collected “hundreds” of pieces of evidence showing war crimes by Russian forces in Ukraine, calling for an international effort to bring leaders to justice.

“At the moment we are focusing on mass killings in Bucha and attacks on Ukraine’s civil infrastructure,” prosecutor Peter Frank told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. He said most of the evidence came from interviews with Ukrainian refugees, and the goal was now to “prepare for a possible later court case -- whether in Germany or with our foreign partners or an international court”. Frank’s office has previously used the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows the prosecution of certain grave crimes regardless of where they took place, to try Syrians over atrocities committed during the country´s civil war.

Under the same principle, a group of people from Myanmar last month filed a criminal complaint in Germany, accusing their country´s military of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Frank said his office had begun its Ukraine inquiry in March 2022. “We are not targeting certain specific people in the investigation but rather are collecting information and evidence,” he said. He acknowledged, however, that prosecution of suspected war criminals in Germany was possible only if they were in the country.