REUTERS
The Hague's International Criminal Court says it does not have jurisdiction at this stage over the crime of aggression with regard to the annexation of Crimea by Russia, the ICC's spokesperson, Fadi el Abdallah, has told an UNIAN correspondent in Brussels.
The official says that the ICC may obtain from 2017 a new function of considering cases that relate to the acts of aggression, including annexation.
There is such provision in the Roman Statute of the ICC, according to the official, but it will only come into force in 2017. He said there must be a vote in November, 2017, “to say, do we want to activate this part of the jurisdiction or not.” “And depending on this vote, we will know whether this crime will come under the ICC jurisdiction or not,” said the ICC spokesman.
Besides, the Roman Statute’s member states must first ratify the amendments, said el Abdallah: “Since it was a new amendment into a Roman Statute, then the states have to ratify the amendments as well. So we need at least 30 ratifications of the amendments, plus a final vote for a crime of aggression to become effectively under the ICC jurisdiction.
Read alsoNo crimes against humanity at Ukraine's Maidan - initial ICC probe saysAnswering a question on whether Ukraine will be able to lodge a claim with the ICC after the procedure is complete, the spokesman said: “I don’t think that it will be applicable retroactively. What have happened before the crime of aggression becomes effective will not be part of the ICC jurisdiction.”
El Abdallah reminded that the ICC’s jurisdiction at the moment covers the crimes against humanity war crimes and genocide.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine’s Deputy Prosecutor General Vitaly Kasko said that the Prosecutor’s Office of the ICC was considering circumstances in the framework of appeal No.145-VIII by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of February 4, 2015 “On recognizing jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in regard with the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Russian authorities and leaders of the DPR and LPR terrorist organizations, which caused grave consequences and mass murder of the Ukrainian citizens, handed over to the ICC on September 8, 2015, by Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.
Kasko stressed that the ICC did not consider the issue of Crimea’s annexation by Russia in a separate proceeding.