Catalan NGO director killing in Ukraine to be investigated by International Criminal Court
The Hague prosecutor will personally lead inquiry, according to Spanish foreign minister
The killing of Catalan NGO director Emma Igual in Ukraine will be investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
The move was confirmed in an interview with La Sexta TV channel by the Spanish foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, who had requested for the court to lead the inquiry as a war crime.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan will be personally in charge of the case, according to Albares, who explained that he had committed to finding those responsible for the killing before Igual's mother.
The minister also said that Spain has offered The Hague court "all technical and economic means" needed to investigate the incident.
According to him, Khan told him he would be in touch with him to transmit all the updates of his findings.
Emma Igual killed in a Russian convoy attack
Catalan volunteer Emma Igual was killed on September 9 in a Russian convoy attack in Ukraine. The director of the NGO Road to Relief found herself and her team inside a vehicle during a crossfire in the Bakhmut region, north of Donetsk.
At around 10 am, the Road to Relief team left from Slovyansk toward Bakhmut to assess the needs of civilians caught in a crossfire in the town of Ivanivske, in the same region, as the NGO published on social media.
A hit flipped the vehicle over and lit it on fire. Accompanying Igual there were German medical Ruben Mawick, Swedish Johan Mathias Thyr, and Canadian Anthony "Tonko" Ihnat. While Mawick and Mathias Thyr were "badly injured with shrapnel wounds and burns," Ihnat's body was found dead and retrieved.