WASHINGTON — Congress on Thursday finally approved a bill to expand the power of the U.S. government to prosecute international war crimes suspects who are in the United States so that they can be tried in federal court regardless of the nationality of the victim or perpetrator. or where the crime was committed.
Experts say the legislation, backed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers amid reports of Russian troops committing war crimes in Ukraine’s brutal conflict, brings the US legal code into line with international law and prevents the United States from being seen as a potential haven for war criminals.
The bill, called the Justice for Victims of War Crimes Act, now goes to President Biden. It raced through the Senate and then the House in the hours surrounding a congressional address Wednesday night by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who condemned President Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia for attacking civilians and urged the United States to follow through. continue sending financial and military aid in the midst of a winter attack.
“By passing this vital legislation, we are sending a clear message to Vladimir Putin: Perpetrators who commit unspeakable war crimes, as they are unfolding before our very eyes in Ukraine, must be held accountable,” Illinois Senator Richard J. Durbin said in a statement Thursday. Mr. Durbin, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, helped spearhead the legislation along with Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the panel.
Currently, federal law allows prosecution for war crimes only if the crime was committed in the United States, or if the victim or perpetrator is a U.S. national or service member. Non-Americans who commit war crimes against other non-Americans abroad, but then enter the United States, generally fall outside the scope of the law.
David J. Scheffer, a fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, said the Justice Department faces limited options in discovering a foreigner suspected of a war crime living in the United States. In one case, a Bosnian man accused of murdering Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 was only charged with visa fraud when U.S. officials learned in 2004 that he lived in Massachusetts and had to be extradited to face further charges.
Similarly, the US could only bring charges of naturalization fraud against two former Guatemalan soldiers suspected of massacring villagers in Dos Erres in 1982, during the country’s civil war, after they were discovered living in the United States.
The new legislation means the United States will no longer be a haven for war criminals, Mr Scheffer said, adding that it is also a timely deterrent to all Russians, from top generals to foot soldiers, who may commit war crimes in Ukraine and then try to United States, even years in the future.
“Many countries look to the United States to see if we keep our house in order,” he said. “Are we creating domestic criminal law that allows us to prosecute genocide, prosecute crimes against humanity, prosecute war crimes?”