The United States on Wednesday acknowledged “limitations” in prosecuting alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, as federal law only allows the prosecution of cases involving Americans.
This was stated before the Senate Judiciary Committee by jurist Eli Rosenbaum, who was commissioned by the US Department of Justice in June to lead a team to bring those responsible for crimes in Ukraine to the dock.
Rosenbaum, who has dedicated his career to prosecuting Nazi criminals, explained that US war crimes law “does not cover the vast majority” of cases, since it only applies when the victim or perpetrator is a citizen. American.
So is the federal law on torture, continued the jurist, nicknamed the “Nazi hunter.”
“If a United States member or military is a victim of torture abroad, the United States does not normally have jurisdiction to prosecute unless the perpetrator is a United States citizen or is here [no país]”, he exemplified.
Finally, he stressed that the country does not have a statute that classifies “crimes against humanity” as a crime, which would allow “prosecuting certain criminal acts, such as slavery or mass murder against the civilian population.”
“Having prosecuted World War II Nazi cases for four decades, I can attest to the deep frustration we experienced with legal limitations like these that made it impossible for us to criminally prosecute many of the Nazis we encountered,” Rosenbaum revealed.
According to the former director of the US Department of Justice, in most cases, prosecutors can only bring civil actions against Nazis who are in the US.
“Russian war criminals and others who come must not be able to escape justice in the same way or even find refuge here,” he said.
In any case, he warned Russians to think twice before committing crimes, since “there could be an American in their line of attack”, including dual nationals, in which case the United States would have jurisdiction to act.
In addition, for the rest of the cases, he assured that the United States is supporting the Ukrainian authorities to seek the “responsibility” of the Russians and stressed that “there will be no hiding place for war criminals.”
Source: TSF
