International Criminal Court Prosecutor: “Our investigation will be independent and impartial”(VIDEO)

Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Fatou Bensouda commented on tonight's decision by judges in the Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC to authorise an investigation into possible war crimes committed during the Russia-Georgia war in 2008.

Her statement reads, the Prosecutor’s Office "gathered information on alleged crimes attributed to the three parties involved in the armed conflict – the Georgian Armed Forces, the South Ossetian forces, and the Russian Armed Forces.”

She emphasised several important points about the investigation:

• "My Office’s own investigators will collect evidence from a variety of sources.”
• "Our investigation, as in all cases and with all our work, will be independent and impartial.”
• "We do not provide any details of any aspect of our investigative activities while they are ongoing; they are completely confidential.”
• "The investigation will take as long as needed to gather the required evidence.”

Prosecutor Bensouda stressed the findings made at this stage were preliminary.

The decision does not make any determinative findings on the guilt or innocence of particular persons. Only if and when, based on the evidence collected, there are reasonable grounds to believe a person is criminally responsible for crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court, will I request the judges to issue an arrest warrant or summons to appear,” she said.

Watch the full statement below:

The ICC Prosecutor’s Office stressed it "counts on the full support and cooperation of all parties throughout the investigation.”

Read the full statement here.

This will be the ICC's first investigation into a conflict outside Africa.