Madrid (EFE).- Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska met with the Police Support Team (EPA), made up of 11 officers and which will investigate in Ukraine the possible commission of crimes of war and crimes against humanity, at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport before departing in the early hours of Thursday.
During this meeting, Grande-Marlaska was accompanied by the Secretary of State for Security, Rafael Pérez; the director general of the police, Francisco Pardo, and the director of the Civil Guard, María Gámez, as reported this Friday by the Ministry of the Interior in a press release.
The team, which is already in Ukraine, is made up of eleven national police and civil guard officers, coordinated by a commander and a chief inspector.
The troops come from the National Police’s Systems and Forensic Science Departments and from the Forensic Service of the Civil Guard and National Police, in addition to having explosives deactivation specialists from both bodies.
In addition to these officers, a team from the Civil Guard’s Rapid Action Group (GAR) traveled to Ukraine to provide security for the team.
Four other agents are already working in the field
Just a month ago, on November 2, an outpost of the police team, consisting of two civil guard officers and two national police officers, met in Kyiv with representatives of the prosecutor’s office Ukrainian to establish the framework for collaboration and to determine the areas where the EPA will now be deployed.
The team’s mission is to work alongside Ukrainian investigators and prosecutors in collecting evidence that can be incorporated into legal proceedings in Ukraine, and which will serve to identify victims of possible actions contrary to international law.
Specialists are trained to create complete three-dimensional models of bombed facilities and will investigate in the field the type of equipment, weapons and explosive devices used, as well as the techniques used and, if necessary, collect information with the persons or groups responsible for the serious crimes under investigation.
Petition for the support of the International Criminal Court
The creation of the police support teams is based on an instruction signed by the Secretary of State for Security, Rafael Pérez, which constitutes and establishes the availability, operability and support and reaction capacities of this team of police, whose objective is the investigation of serious crimes under international law.
The Secretary of State’s instruction placed the EPA at the disposal of the International Criminal Court, which has jurisdiction over the most serious crimes, of importance to the international community as a whole, complementary to national criminal jurisdictions, and which may require collaboration and support for the police capacities of the signatory States of the Treaty of Rome for the exercise of their functions.