ICC Refuses To Comment On Complaints Over Stalled Review Of Donbas Victims' Cases

The International Criminal Court (ICC) declined to comment on the statement made by the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, regarding ICC's reluctance to review thousands of cases of those affected by the conflict in southeastern Ukraine

PARIS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th May, 2021) The International Criminal Court (ICC) declined to comment on the statement made by the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, regarding ICC's reluctance to review thousands of cases of those affected by the conflict in southeastern Ukraine.

Pushilin said in an interview with Sputnik that the ICC, as well as the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), were not in a hurry to look into 8,000 cases of Donbas victims. According to Pushilin, 5,500 such cases were submitted to the ECHR alone by residents of the southeastern Donetsk region.

"Confidentiality is a crucial aspect of our activities. The Office of the Prosecutor ('Office') therefore does not publicly comment on speculation or reports regarding its ongoing preliminary examinations and investigations, nor does the Office publicly discuss specifics related to its activities," a spokesperson from the ICC Prosecutor's office told Sputnik, when asked to comment on Pushilin's statement.

In December 2020 , ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced the completion of her preliminary examination of the situation in Ukraine, saying that there was a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed.

"The next step in the judicial process is to request authorisation from the Pre-Trial Chamber to open an investigation into the situation in Ukraine," the ICC spokesperson told Sputnik.

Meanwhile, an ECHR spokesperson told Sputnik that the review of cases of those impacted by the conflict in southeastern Ukraine depends on the decision regarding complaints against Russia filed by Kiev and the Netherlands (regarding the MH17 crash case).

The ongoing conflict in southeastern Ukraine, where Kiev forces launched a special military operation against the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics in 2014, has killed thousands of people. The Normandy Four format , which includes Russia, France, Germany, and Ukraine, was established in June 2014 to mediate the conflict after the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, known together as Donbas, proclaimed independence following what they considered to be a coup in Kiev in February of that year. Despite several agreements reached under the Normandy format, the Donbas conflict continues.