(Reuters) – Switzerland on Thursday joined an international call for the establishment of a special tribunal to address Russia’s crime of “aggression” against Ukraine, the Swiss foreign ministry said.
It said Switzerland announced its commitment to the initiative at a meeting in Berlin of a group of nations advocating for such a tribunal.
“Switzerland is firmly convinced that the aggression against Ukraine must not go unpunished,” it said in a statement, adding that in the past months the call has garnered support from 38 countries, including France, Germany, Norway, Guatemala, Japan and Canada.
Ukraine, the European Union, and the Netherlands, have also publicly backed the idea of such a tribunal.
The Swiss ministry said that while the International Criminal Court (ICC) had the authority to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine, it lacked jurisdiction over the “crime of aggression” in this conflict because neither Russia nor Ukraine have ratified a treaty that established the court.
(Reporting by by Linda Pasquini and Tomasz Janowski; Editing by Miranda Murray)
