Macron is “open to the idea” of creating russian war crime tribunal – CCL

French President Emmanuel Macron is "open to the idea" of creating a special international tribunal about the crimes of russian aggression against Ukraine.

Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) organization, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, stated this, Ukrinform reports.

In October 2022, during a meeting with Macron, Matviichuk appealed to the French president to support the international tribunal and bring putin, lukashenko, and other war criminals to justice.

To the question, "What did he answer you? Does he support this idea?" Matviichuk said: "He said that he is open to this idea. But before that, he had a meeting with the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, and we all know that Karim Khan does not support this idea. He acts from the position of the interests of his institution." 

For example, as the human rights defender explained, "he (the prosecutor of the ICC – ed.) says that the consideration of the issue of aggression —  his court does not have jurisdiction over it — depends on the decisions of the member states of the Rome Statute and that this decision must be changed and somehow renegotiated."

But, Matviichuk stressed, it may take years, and justice should not wait.

"Because when it is so delayed that the victims do not live to see it, then, I'm sorry, this is not justice," she added.

"That's why there is a discussion here — a discussion with very powerful players in the international arena. And we have to convince the French president and all other heads of state that these additional mechanisms (investigation and justice — ed.) are not a competition to the International Criminal Court, in not at all. When the International Criminal Court chooses its cases — and we work closely with a group of prosecutors, give them all the information they need — then those will be the cases they will pursue. But the question is about hundreds of thousands of other people, who will not be 'lucky' to get into this list of the chosen ones: what to do with them?" the Nobel laureate noted.

Earlier, it was reported that President Volodymyr Zelensky is convinced that the special tribunal regarding russia and the compensation mechanism for compensation of damages caused to Ukraine by the aggressor country will work.

At the same time, he emphasized the need to cooperate as much as possible with international partners, with the International Criminal Court.

According to him, the responsibility for the invaders should be inevitable.

The President emphasized that one state cannot ensure this and thanked partners, particularly the Netherlands, for "principled leadership" in this work, investigators, experts, prosecutors, judges who are already working on this, as well as journalists and public activists.