PROCEDURE FOR TRANSFER OF POTENTIAL EVIDENCE OF WAR CRIMES BY REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ARMED FORCES OF UKRAINE TO PRE-JUDICIAL INVESTIGATION BODIES

Abstract

The process of documenting war crimes is one of the priority areas of
interaction between investigators and other bodies and units, because
documenting is a way of preserving evidence of war crimes that may be hidden or
destroyed over time. In the conditions of active hostilities, documenting such
offenses is impossible without the involvement of representatives of the Armed
Forces of Ukraine, because, as a rule, it is they who possess a significant amount of
information about factual data that can be recognized as evidence in criminal
proceedings. After all, it is the military personnel who carry out various military
operations in the occupied territories who are the first to arrive in the liberated
areas, and the pre-trial investigation bodies cannot arrive immediately or do not
have objective access to the place where war crimes were committed.
In order to timely and properly notify law enforcement agencies about the
commission of war crimes, complete collection, preservation and transfer of
potential evidence to pre-trial investigation bodies, based on the analysis of court
practice, provisions of criminal procedural legislation, practical advisors and
recommendations, the author of the article developed proposals regarding the
procedure for involving representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the
beginning of the pre-trial investigation of war crimes, their transfer of items and
documents discovered on the battlefield or de-occupied territories, which can be
recognized as physical evidence and have evidentiary value in criminal
proceedings regarding war crimes