France opened an investigation into alleged war crime following the death on Monday in Ukraine of Pierre Zakrzewski, a French-Irish cameraman for Fox News, the anti-terrorist prosecutor's office told AFP on Wednesday.
The source explained that the investigation was opened for “deliberate harm to the life of a person protected by international law” and “deliberate attack on a civilian who does not participate directly in hostilities”.
Pierre Zakrzewski and Oleksandra Kuvshynova, a Ukrainian woman accompanying him, died Monday in Horenka, northwest of the capital, Kiev, “when their vehicle was shot,” Fox News President Suzanne Scott said in a statement, who explained that they were both with reporter Benjamin Hall, who was injured.
The investigation was entrusted to the gendarmes of the Central Office for Combating Crimes Against Humanity - Genocide and War Crimes - (OCLCH).
In Germany and Spain, investigations for “war crimes” had already been opened following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, since those countries have a wider universal jurisdiction, but the French anti-terrorist prosecutor's office explained to AFP that it can only open investigations when one of the victims is French, when the perpetrator of the alleged war crime is French or when the perpetrator of the offense has his habitual residence on French territory.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian recalled on Wednesday the “obligation” of belligerents in Ukraine to ensure the protection of journalists covering the conflict.
The organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced Wednesday on Twitter that it intends to file a complaint as “a criminal investigation is essential to identify the perpetrators of the shooting that killed journalists and to what extent it was deliberately targeting journalists”.
Since the conflict began on February 24, three other journalists - two Ukrainians and one American - have been killed.
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