ICC issues warrants warrants for 3 suspects in 2008 war with Russia

Three men wanted on trial charged with committing war crimes during Russia's war with Georgia in 2008, the international criminal court judges have issued, the court announced on Thursday.

The Hague-based court opened an investigation in 2016 into the five-day conflict, which killed hundreds and left thousands of civilians displaced. Russia invaded Georgia after violence broke out between separatist groups and Georgian forces. In 2021, the European Court of Human Rights concluded that grave human rights abuses occurred on Russian-held territory.

The three wanted men Lt Gen Mikhail Mindzaev, Gamlet Guchmazov and David Sanakoev served in the government of the Russian-backed self-declared republic of South Ossetia.

In a ruling released on Thursday, a panel of judges concluded that there was reasonable grounds to believe that each of these three suspects bears responsibility for war crimes. The 2008 conflict over South Ossetia took a terrible toll on civilians, many of whom continue to pay the price, said Rachel Denber, deputy director of the rights group's Europe and Central Asia division. The ICC warrants are an important step that has been a long time coming, to hold individuals implicated in the campaign of violence that forced nearly 20,000 ethnic Georgians from their homes to account. Mindzaev and Guchmazov held top positions in the ministry of internal affairs of South Ossetia, while Sanakoev served as the presidential representative for human rights in the region of South Ossetia.

Mindzaev and Guchmazov are charged with unlawful confinement, torture and inhuman treatment, outrages on personal dignity, hostage-taking, and the unlawful transfer of civilians. The court said that the crimes took place between 8 and 27 August 2008 and were not reported by the court.

Sanakoev's arrest warrant includes charges of hostage-taking and unlawful transfer of civilians.

The court said that civilians perceived to be ethnically Georgian were arrested in the South Ossetian part of Georgia, and were subsequently detained, mistreated and kept in harsh detention conditions.

Judges estimated that around 170 people, including women and elderly people, were rounded up and confined at the detention centre known as the Isolator. Prisoners were later used by Russia and the South Ossetian de facto authorities as a bargaining tool and were used for exchange of prisoners and detainees. The international criminal court judges said that the detainees were forced to leave South Ossetia because of the exchange.

The ICC is a court of last resort that takes on cases when national authorities are unwilling or unable to launch prosecutions. ICC prosecutors are currently investigating alleged crimes in several countries, including the war in Ukraine.