The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague, Sir Geoffrey Nice, spoke to N1 Wednesday regarding the possibility of bringing Russian President Vladimir Putin to Court, and whether it is possible for him to try him on the territory of Ukraine. 

He claims that it is certainly, possible to try Putin in Ukraine. Whether he would be physically present or not is a different story, but it does not mean that he should not be judged. The natural outcome is that the trial is organized on the territory of Ukraine, Nice said.

Sir Nice pointed out that assumptions are dangerous, but it is clear from the beginning that crimes against humanity were committed. For this reason, he stated that the trial against Putin must be fair.

“It is clear as day, and it was clear from the beginning that crimes against humanity have been committed, and that the chain of command is without any doubt linked to Putin,” he told N1.

When asked if there is any difference between BiH and Ukraine, Sir Nice said that his concept, as someone who comes from abroad, is that one should be cautious with Bosnia. There is no doubt that Bosnian Muslims are not to blame for what happened to them, but that Bosnian Serbs and Serbs from Serbia are to blame for different reasons,” he said, noting that the problem with the trials for war crimes in Bosnia is that the Tribunal in the Hague was not able to start working on them on time.

The consequence of that, as it is with your country, is that 25 years of trial, like the case of Srebrenica, has not yet been resolved. Young people are already listening to counter-argumentation [for the Srebrenica genocide] and this concept of “moral equality” appears with terrible consequences and can lead to the Republika Srpska entity gaining an advantage that it should never have gotten because it is a territory created by genocide, Sir Nice pointed out.

This, in his opinion, is an important lesson, which everyone must have learned, and everyone must be careful that this is not carried out in Ukraine.

“If we have longer trials that last for decades, then we will not have a clear understanding of where the moral responsibility lies,” he said.