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International court to investigate 2008 Georgia-Russia war

27 January 2016 17:00 (UTC +04:00)

In an ICC statement on Wednesday, judges said there was reason to believe crimes against humanity, including murder and the driving of Georgians from their homes, had been committed during the conflict, as well as war crimes including attacks on peacekeepers by Russian-backed South Ossetian and by Georgian forces.

Last October, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda asked to open an investigation after finding that up to 113 ethnic Georgian civilians had been killed and 18,500 driven from their homes as part of a "forcible displacement campaign" run by the authorities in mainly Russian-speaking South Ossetia.

The ICC considers murder, forcible transfer of population and persecution to be crimes against humanity, while attacks against the civilian population, willful killing, intentionally directing attacks against peacekeepers, destruction of property and pillaging are considered war crimes.