The Diplomat
Acting Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has asked Ukraine and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate as a “war crime” the death of Spanish aid worker Emma Igual at the hands of Russian forces on Ukrainian territory.
Albares has sent letters to the chief prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan, and to his Ukrainian counterpart, Dimitro Kuleba, to ask them to investigate the case, as announced yesterday by the minister in Strasbourg, quoted by the Europa Press agency. Albares also expressed Spain’s willingness to collaborate with the necessary material and human resources.
Asked what the Government will do in the event that the Russian authorship of the attack in which Igual’s death took place is proven, Albares answered that it is up to the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office and to that of the ICT, and not to him, “to pronounce on the war crimes” that are committed daily in Ukraine.
In any case, he said, the death of Igual, “even if indirectly, is the responsibility of the one who launched the war of aggression against Ukraine”, in an implicit reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Albares also specified that he had conveyed to the mother of the aid worker the will of the Government to “go to the end” to clarify her death.
On the other hand, the Council of Ministers yesterday awarded the Grand Cross of Isabel la Católica to Emma Igual. In the subsequent press conference, the spokesperson of the Executive in functions, Isabel Rodríguez, recalled that, from the beginning of the “illegal and illegitimate aggression” of Russia, the aid worker was dedicated to evacuate the citizens of the most at-risk areas. “From the Government we want to recognize her work and also that of all the Spanish aid workers who are working in the field in situations of special difficulty”, she added.
