Lord chancellor Dominic Raab has announced a second package of support for the International Criminal Court’s investigation into alleged war crimes in Ukraine, including an offer of seven lawyers with international criminal law experience.

The government is offering ‘a specialist legal and support team’ to assist the ICC’s ongoing investigation, which will be in addition to £1m in funding provided earlier this year.

This will include a Metropolitan Police liaison officer based in the Hague to provide the court with ‘swift access to further British police and military expertise’, as well as seven UK lawyers ‘to help uncover evidence and prosecute those responsible for war crimes’.

The Ministry of Justice is also ‘accelerating conversations with City law firms and barristers to prepare for deployment at the appropriate stage of the investigation’, the department said.

In a statement, Raab said: ‘The UK has responded swiftly to a request from the International Criminal Court for more police and lawyers to aid their investigation into Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Russian forces should know that they will be held to account for their actions and the global community will work together to ensure justice is served.’

Attorney general Suella Braverman hosted Ukraine’s prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova in London last month, having visited the country with a delegation of war crimes experts including former ICC judge Sir Howard Morrison QC, who was appointed as an independent adviser to the investigation in March.

She said: ‘I am determined that British expertise continues to be available to our friends in Ukraine in their search for justice. We will stand side by side as they uncover the truth and hold those responsible in Putin’s regime to account for their actions.’

 

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