An international team of legal advisors from Global Rights Compliance, headquartered in The Hague, is cooperating with the local prosecutor’s office in liberated Kherson in the south of Ukraine to collect evidence of war crimes committed by Russian troops. Lawyers’ visit to Kherson runs from December 8 to December 10, 2022.
Source: Julian Elderfield, an international legal adviser at the Global Rights Compliance
“We’ve come down here for a three-day mission to support the Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG), and specifically the team investigating conflict-related sexual violence,” said Julian Elderfield.
The experts’ efforts are aimed at supporting the Ukrainian authorities in bringing Russians to justice in general for criminal activities during the occupation of Ukrainian territories.
The group worked together with Ukrainian prosecutors. They visited hospitals and other places to talk to victims of Russian crimes, including victims of sexual violence.
“(It’s about) asking the right questions, pursuing unique or different lines of investigation that might otherwise not have been pursued by local investigators,” Julian Elderfield told about the investigation.
Anna Sosonska, deputy head of Ukraine’s eight-member war crimes unit for sexual violence, said that she would be monitoring the investigation and studying the role of Russian military and political leaders in any crimes committed in Ukraine.
See also: Russia has already committed almost 69,000 crimes in Ukraine