Georgia’s Prime Minister meets ICC prosecutor Bensouda in Germany

Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili has confirmed Georgia is ready to collaborate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) as it investigates possible war crimes committed during a conflict between Russia and Georgia in 2008.

Kvirikashvili met The Hague prosecutor Fatou Bensouda who is in charge of this investigation in Munich earlier this afternoon.

The Georgian Prime Minister said his country was ready to cooperate with the ICC to investigate all crime of the 2008 war, including facts of:

• Ethnic cleansing;
• Torture of war prisoners; and
• Purposefully destroying of cultural hertigate.

The Prime Minister’s Administration said the sides discussed "technical details” regarding the ongoing investigation.

Prosecutor Bensouda said her office was now in the phase of creating an investigation plan with one year and multi-year action plans.

Bensouda thanked the Georgian side for the high-level meeting and added she was waiting for an answer from the Russian side regarding when Moscow would be ready for a meeting.

Today’s meeting was attended by Georgia’s Defence and Justice Ministers. This was the first meeting between the Georgian officials and the prosecutor after the ICC announced an investigation would be carried out into the 2008 war case.