“It was indeed a very important moment for the Council of Europe, I believe, for Ukraine and for the entire European continent. But the most significant thing was the signing of a bilateral agreement between the Council of Europe and Ukraine on the establishment of the Tribunal”, - said the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.
He recalled that on June 25, President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Strasbourg, where a bilateral agreement between the Council of Europe and Ukraine on the creation of the Tribunal was signed.
According to him, after the signing of the agreement, large-scale preparatory work began.
“We are ready to activate an advanced team to prepare all the necessary elements for the Tribunal. I am talking about legal instruments, infrastructure, personnel. And now we are trying, and I hope it will soon be possible, to finance this first step”, - he explained.
Berset emphasized that the launch of the process depends on the support of member states. After all, it can only begin once several countries join and start working actively in this direction.
“This part of the equation is not in our hands. We are presenting arguments. We are calling on the member states — and not only them — to join us. And everything can be launched as soon as the countries actively get involved — with a budget and with the ratification of the enlarged partial agreement, which will allow them to participate. That is what must happen now. From our side, we are ready. We can start immediately. But we need support”, - noted the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
Answering the question of whether the Tribunal could start operating as early as 2026, he said that he could not predict exact dates, since “this is not entirely in our hands”.
On June 25, President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, signed an agreement to establish a special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. The statute of the special tribunal does not contain references to personal immunity, which allows for charges to be brought even against the current leadership of russia. However, sentencing or conviction in absentia would only be possible after their removal from office.