{"id":421969,"date":"2026-04-28T17:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T17:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/421969\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T17:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T17:35:08","slug":"ireland-considering-joining-ukraine-war-tribunal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/421969\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland considering joining Ukraine war tribunal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ireland is considering supporting the establishment of an international tribunal to prosecute Russian political and military leaders for crimes of aggression against Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>At Cabinet on Tuesday, Minister Helen McEntee updated ministers on proposals to advance Irish support for international accountability mechanisms in response to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>This included \u201cnext steps\u201d towards Ireland joining a tribunal on aggression against Ukraine, a Government spokesman said.<\/p>\n<p>The Council of Europe is setting up a \u201cspecial tribunal\u201d to prosecute senior political and military leaders for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>It will be financed by members of the Enlarged Partial Agreement.<\/p>\n<p>McEntee also updated colleagues on progress towards ratifying the convention establishing the International Claims Commission for Ukraine, a proposed Council of Europe body which will assess compensation claims for damage, loss or injury caused by Russia in or against Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"426\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ireland-considering-joining-ukraine-war-tribunal.jpg\" alt=\"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visit to Ireland\" data-title=\"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visit to Ireland\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Liam McBurney\" data-usage-terms=\"\"\/>Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin in Dublin (Liam McBurney\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>The Council acknowledged there are clear obstacles to bringing Russian leaders to trial, including the immunity of sitting heads of State and Government as well as foreign ministers, and difficulties in obtaining physical custody over potential defendants.<\/p>\n<p>However, it said \u201cinternational law is evolving\u201d and \u201cpersonal immunity is not a \u2018carte blanche\u2019 for impunity\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It said such figures could only be brought to trial before the special tribunal if they were no longer in power or their immunity had been waived.<\/p>\n<p>It said investigations and the gathering of evidence as well as the preparation of indictments could still go ahead, with a legal body standing ready \u201cprosecute and try the persons concerned if and when circumstances allow\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Council said Belarus or North Korean individuals could potentially be prosecuted if evidence shows they played a significant role in the crime of aggression against Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>15 judges, a prosecutor, and deputy prosecutor will need to be selected following proposals from participating states.<\/p>\n<p>The Council of Europe said it is hoped that Special Tribunal \u201ccan soon be operational\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland is considering supporting the establishment of an international tribunal to prosecute Russian political and military leaders for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-421969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}