Alex Whiting

The International Criminal Court said Friday it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement…

On March 2, 2022, just one week into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Kahn opened…

A former fighter with the Kosovo Liberation Army was responsible for the murder of one person and the illegal detention and torture of nearly 20…

A former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) member, accused of running a makeshift prison where people were abused and one man killed, told judges at the…

A former Kosovo rebel commander has pleaded not guilty to war crimes, calling the charges “fabricated” as his trial opened on Tuesday for alleged abuses…

Appeals judges at a European Union-backed court on Thursday upheld most of the convictions of two leaders of a Kosovo war veterans’ association who were…

A former commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army was found guilty Friday of arbitrarily detaining and torturing prisoners perceived as supporters of Serbia and murdering…

The effort to document war crimes in Ukraine has gotten strong international support. But what does it actually take to put a former leader on trial at The Hague? For an example, we look at the violence that enveloped Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and the trial of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. The World’s Chris Harland-Dunaway tells the story of two men: the prosecutor — Alex Whiting, and Milan Babic, and insider who turned on Milosevic.

The odds are against anyone being brought to justice for atrocities committed in Ukraine. Despite mounting evidence that Russian forces executed civilians and targeted residential neighborhoods for bombardment, a successful prosecution of the perpetrators -- from military commanders in the field all the way up to Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin -- before an international tribunal will be difficult. In the 76 years since the Nuremberg trials, which set the standard for punishing individuals for crimes against humanity, war crimes investigators have faced many obstacles. In this episode, former International Criminal Court prosecutor Alex Whiting explains the challenges confronting those seeking justice for victims of wars of aggression and atrocities.

When President Biden calls Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” and says that Russia’s war in Ukraine amounts to “genocide,” what does it mean? Do such prounouncements place obligations on the United States? Does it threaten some sort of legal jeopardy for the Russian president? When an artilleryman a thousand yards away sends a projectile slamming into an apartment building full of civilians, is that a war crime? Is the soldier who released the shell more or less responsible than the politician a thousand miles away who ordered the assault on a city? Ray Suarez tackles these questions with a war-crimes prosecutor and a former student organizer who played a critical role in the downfall of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was the first sitting head of state indicted for war crimes. Guests: Ivan Marovic, International Center on Nonviolent Conflict Alex Whiting, war-crimes prosecutor and visiting professor at Harvard Law School

Michael Newton, Law professor and former Senior Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, and Visiting Harvard Law professor, Alex Whiting who is also deputy specialist prosecutor at the Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague, join host Carol Castiel to discuss potential war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine and the important ongoing process of documenting evidence, which is needed to hold perpetrators, up to and including Russian President Vladimir Putin, accountable at the ICC or any other national or international venue.

The brutalities of Russia’s war in Ukraine have stoked enormous demand among Ukrainians and much of the Western world for investigations, indictments, arrests and trials for the invaders and their commanders, notably President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Some leaders, including President Biden, have even accused them of genocide. ... “There’s no question an act of aggression was done,” said Alex Whiting, a visiting professor of international law at Harvard and a war-crimes prosecutor. “And the most straightforward case, in a crime of aggression, is against Putin himself.”

This week, the European Union announced it will provide funding and support to prosecutors from the International Criminal Court who are investigating alleged war crimes. The move comes days after E.U. President Ursula von der Leyen visited Bucha, a Kyiv suburb where hundreds of Ukrainian civilians have been found dead in the streets. On Sunday, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told ABC’s “This Week” that Russian forces are intentionally targeting civilians as part of their strategy. However, when asked whether the U.S. would be involved in prosecuting the alleged war crimes through the International Criminal Court, Sullivan deferred. The United States has a complicated relationship with the ICC. Neither the U.S. nor Russia are signatories to the Rome Statute, which established the court back in 2002. And the U.S. has long been opposed to allowing the court jurisdiction over citizens of countries that aren’t part of the ICC. We have a panel of legal experts to discuss the path forward on war crimes in Ukraine. GUESTS Alex Whiting Deputy Prosecutor of the Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor’s office

As attacks mount on Ukrainian civilians, Alex Whiting, a former head of Investigations and Prosecutions at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, tells MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell what goes into the investigations into potential war crimes and genocide in Ukraine. “All of that evidence will be critical in showing civilians were intentionally targeted,” Whiting says.

In early April, as Ukraine started to regain control of Bucha and other small towns northwest of Kyiv, appalling imagery began to spread on Telegram and other social networks. Photos and videos showed bodies in the streets and anguished survivors describing loved ones, civilians, killed by Russian soldiers. In Chernivtsi, in western Ukraine, attorney Denys Rabomizo carefully built an archive of the gruesome evidence. His aim: to preserve social media posts that could help prove Russian war crimes. ... “Capturing social media from Ukraine is an incredible source of evidence,” says Alex Whiting, deputy prosecutor at the Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in the Hague, and a visiting professor at Harvard University. A deluge of TikTok and Telegram posts could vastly increase the amount of evidence of alleged Russian war crimes—but they will only aid prosecutions if judges accept such material in court.

There have been urgent calls for investigations into allegations of war crimes in previously Russian-held areas of Ukraine after shocking footage of murdered civilians. But there are wider questions over whether widespread Russian attacks on civilian targets amount to war crimes. We've been looking at a series of attacks in one city - Chernihiv - to see whether they are consistent with Russian tactics across Ukraine and reveal something of their strategy. ... A critical factor in any prosecution for war crimes is obtaining clear evidence of a deliberate intent to target civilians. Images and eye-witness statements can be the starting point, says Prof Alex Whiting, a former investigations co-ordinator at the International Criminal Court.

Gathering evidence of war crimes in Ukraine will be a fairly straightforward process, international prosecutors have said. The most difficult task will be linking those crimes to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who may escape accountability altogether. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has launched an investigation into the atrocities committed in Ukrainian cities such as the scenes witnessed in Bucha, where horrific images appeared to show dozens of civilians shot at close range with hands bound behind their backs. The gruesome discovery was made after Russian troops abandoned the city on 30 March. ... Time can also help with investigations, Alex Whiting, a former ICC prosecutions coordinator and visiting professor at Harvard Law School in the US, told i. Given the enormous power he yields and the great amount of support he enjoys at home, it seems unlikely that Mr Putin would be surrendered to the ICC by his loyal inner circle if he were to be charged with war crimes. But those close ties could erode as time goes on, especially as the leadership comes under intense pressure from sanctions and international condemnation, Professor Whiting said.

Germany’s foreign intelligence service claims to have intercepted radio communications in which Russian soldiers discuss carrying out indiscriminate killings in Ukraine. In two separate communications, Russian soldiers described questioning Ukrainian soldiers as well as civilians and then shooting them, according to an intelligence official familiar with the findings who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. ... Alex Whiting, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School who previously coordinated investigations at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, said the key question to discern from intercepted communications is whether soldiers were “acting pursuant to some plan or some general direction.” “Just the fact that they would be talking to each other about these killings would indicate that and would disprove any suggestion that these were kind of spontaneous, random events,” he added.