Even a former Hungarian Prime Minister would put Putin on trial!

Helló Magyar reported that Gordon Bajnai, a former Hungarian prime minister, would put Russian President Vladimir Putin on trial. Mr Bajnai is among, for example, former British prime ministers Gordon Brown and Sir John Major. The cause of the petition is the assault on Ukraine and the horrors the Russian army commits in the country.

Prime ministers, foreign ministers, court heads

Based on avaaz.org, almost 1.3 million people signed the petition. It aims to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the international court. The signers would like the Russian president to answer for the war crimes the Russian army allegedly committed against civilians in Ukraine. “As citizens from across the world, we urgently call on you to hold Putin and his accomplices personally accountable for their illegal invasion of Ukraine by creating a new Special Tribunal for the punishment of the crime of aggression. We also call on you to fully support the International Criminal Court’s separate 

investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. 

There will never be peace without such accountability – we are counting on you” – the petition says.

According to Helló Magyar, there are two former British prime ministers among the signers: Gordon Brown and Sir John Major. That is what all Hungarian media outlets spotted. BBC and other international news websites highlighted Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, who was the originator of the petition. Besides, the American-Hungarian former Nuremberg prosecutor, Benjamin Ferencz, and the former Head of the European Court of Human Rights, Sir Nicolas Bratza, also supported it. However, Helló Magyar’s author, Tamás Ulicza, noticed that even a former Hungarian Prime Minister signed the petition.

Gordon Bajnai was a Hungarian PM between 2009 and 2010.

The Socialists and the liberal SZDSZ elected him after Ferenc Gyurcsány’s resignation. Mr Bajnai was followed by Viktor Orbán, after Fidesz’s landslide victory in 2010 April.

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War crimes against Ukrainians?

Gordon Brown told BBC that since the fall of the Berlin Wall “we’ve assumed that democracy and the rule of law will prevail”, but that Mr Putin “is replacing that by the use of force”. “If the message is not sent out now then we face aggression in other countries which may go unpunished as well,” he told Radio 4’s Today programme. When asked if he considered the Russian president a war criminal, he replied:

“That’s what President Biden said, and that’s my view.”

The International Criminal Court (ICC) launched an investigation in early March because, allegedly, Russian troops committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Interestingly, Ukraine is not a member of the ICC but accepted its jurisdiction after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

However, the options of the ICC are restricted because they need the approval of the United Nations Security Council. And Russia has a right to veto in the body. Last week President Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a war criminal.

Nuremberg-style tribunal

The petition writes that “as terrified mothers and children flee the bombs and bullets, Putin is committing the ‘supreme international crime’ — aggression — right before our eyes. There is a powerful way to hold him to account: a new Nuremberg-style tribunal to prosecute him personally for this heinous act.

The Ukrainian foreign minister, 

Dmytro Kuleba, is calling for the world to create this new special court and support is growing fast. 

Massive public backing would give this idea irresistible momentum and it would send Putin and his cronies a powerful message – the world is going to hold you personally to account.

This new court is key to defending not just Ukraine but the entire world from an attack that was illegal from the minute it began. Join the global call to prosecute Putin’s crime in a new Nuremberg-style tribunal – and Avaaz will work directly with renowned experts to get this moving.”

You can sign the petition HERE

Read alsoEven a former Hungarian Prime Minister would put Putin on trial!

Source: Helló Magyar, avaaz.org