Former German interior minister Gerhart Baum and former justice minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger are calling on the federal prosecutor to issue arrest warrants for Russian army commanders.
This is stated in the appeal of politicians published by the RND.
According to them, the warrants should be similar to what the International Criminal Court issued against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"We Germans must use our options. The target of arrest warrants is now at the command level, for example, mercenary leaders or individual commanders who can be accused of deliberate attacks on civilians," write Baum and Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger.
In their statement, Baum and Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger underscore the importance of the ICC's decision: "By its decision to issue a warrant for Putin's arrest, the ICC proved its ability to act."
According to politicians, the court made a historic decision. That decision, and Federal Attorney General Bushman's stated intention to execute the arrest warrant if possible, made it clear that international criminal law, which has only been in place since 2002, is an effective weapon to punish serious violations of international law, they say.
Former ministers of the Free Democratic Party consider the actions of the International Criminal Court effective. They refer to the "negative reaction to the court from the Russian side."
"Now we want international criminal law to be applied at the national level as well," write Baum and Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger.
From the point of view of Baum and Leutheuser-Schnarrenberger, the conditions for issuing arrest warrants are also defined. "We would like to remind you that just a few weeks after the start of the war, we filed a criminal complaint with the Federal Prosecutor's Office about Russia's war crimes in Ukraine," they explained. The Attorney General has been intensively investigating this case over the past months.
