DoD refuses to share alleged Russia 'war crimes evidence' with ICC

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The New York Times
8 Mar 2023 23:41
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NYT says Biden's administration has evidence of Russia allegedly committing war crimes in Ukraine, but the Pentagon is blocking sharing the material with the ICC.

The seal of the United States Department of Justice seen on the building exterior of the United States Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, New York City, US, August 17, 2020 (Reuters)

The US Department of Defense is against the handing over of evidence by Biden's administration that allegedly incriminates Russia for committing 'war crimes' in Ukraine to the International Criminal Court in the Hague (ICC), a New York Times report said on Wednesday.

In order to not set a dangerous precedent that might expose the US to similar measures, top-ranking officials in the US military are preventing the turning in of the evidence, the report claimed.

Alleged evidence showing that Russian officials intentionally gave orders for the targeting of civilian infrastructure and displacing thousands of Ukrainian children are among the material that the US possesses, the report claimed.

In March 2022, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that it began a Ukraine probe to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the war.

An ICC prosecutor's entry visa was canceled by the US in 2019, apparently because she was examining possible war crimes committed by US forces and their allies in Afghanistan.

In 2020, the US - which is not a member of the international court - unilaterally sanctioned the ICC over the aforementioned war crimes accusations.