By KYIV. Dec 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The judicial system of Ukraine copes with heraing cases of war crimes, the creation of military courts is not relevant at present, Chair of the Supreme Court Vsevolod Kniazev has said.
"The judicial system is coping with these cases today, so I don’t see the need to create military courts. We need to pay more attention to the education, training and development of the potential of our judges of trial and appellate courts who are hearing such cases," he said at the XI annual Judicial Forum on Wednesday.
Kniazev said that "trial and appellate courts are doing an excellent job of reviewing cases involving war crimes."
"Fifth percent of the cases of war crimes that have been filed for consideration have already been heard. They have already been reviewed and a final court decision has been made. Most of these decisions are rarely challenged even in appellate courts. This means that decisions are made fair, legal and with all participants in the process agree with them," Kniazev said.
In his opinion, more relevant than the creation of military courts is the issue of specialization of judges who consider cases of war crimes.
"If there were already military courts today, it would probably be good. But creating a system of military courts now is a huge amount of money. We definitely won’t create it within a year. I’m sure that by that time the war will already be over and we will again think about what to do with these courts, then there will be no work for them again. I think that this idea is complex and it is unpromising. We need to talk about the specialization of judges," Kniazev said.
