The authorities of South Ossetia fundamentally rejected the possibility of interaction with the International Criminal Court in view of the platform adopted by this organization, which is absolutely politically biased, on which the investigation of the events of August 2008 is based, which has nothing to do with justice.
This is stated in the official commentary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic, having familiarized itself at the initial stage with the materials of the ongoing investigation, in connection with the request of the ICC prosecutor to issue a warrant for the arrest of Mikhail Mindzaev, Hamlet Guchmazov and David Sanakoev.
As a reminder, as part of the investigation of the events of August 2008, the ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan sent a request to the pre-trial chamber to issue warrants for the arrest of ex-Minister of Internal Affairs of South Ossetia Mikhail Mindzaev, former head of the pre-trial detention center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of South Ossetia Hamlet Guchmazov and former Commissioner for Human Rights under the President of South Ossetia, David Sanakoev, who held their positions in August 2008, during the armed aggression committed by Georgia against the Republic of South Ossetia.
“In South Ossetia, this information caused complete bewilderment, since these officials who were accused of war crimes against the Georgian prisoners of war and civilians, were making every possible effort to save their lives, ensuring security on the territory of South Ossetia and further transferring to the Georgian side. At the same time, the International Criminal Court has not taken a single procedural action against the Georgian military and officials guilty of committing the documented war crimes against the civilian population of South Ossetia and representatives of the Russian peacekeeping contingent stationed on its territory," the commentary says.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has noted that no one will ever be able to agree with such a selective application of international law, when the investigation is conducted not against representatives of the aggressor country, but exclusively against representatives of the side affected by the aggression.
"However, today, against the backdrop of a very serious crisis in international relations, the ICC has obviously decided to perk up and make its own contribution to its aggravation, completely discrediting European justice. Mr. Karim Khan should refresh the memory of himself and his colleagues with the results of the work of the independent commission of the European Union led by Heidi Tagliavini, created to investigate the facts of August 2008, which unequivocally established that on the night of August 7-8, 2008, Georgia was the first to commit a full-scale armed aggression against South Ossetia, using heavy artillery and armored vehicles against the civilian population and the Russian peacekeeping contingent and military aviation," the Foreign Ministry said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that such a special kind of justice, "defiantly ignoring facts that are inconvenient for him, does not withstand any criticism and cannot be accepted in a country that has suffered from armed aggression."
"Obviously, the position of the ICC will never be accepted by the Russian Federation, thanks to the intervention of which Georgia, as an aggressor country, was forced to peace, and South Ossetia and its people were saved from physical destruction," the commentary says.
