War Crimes Trial: Justice on the Battlefield: Military Ethics and Legal Battles

By Fouad Sabry

What is War Crimes Trial

A trial for war crimes is a trial that is held for individuals who are accused of committing criminal violations of the laws and customs of war as well as related principles of international law while they were engaged in armed conflict.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: War crimes trial

Chapter 2: Nuremberg trials

Chapter 3: War crime

Chapter 4: Crimes against humanity

Chapter 5: Nuremberg principles

Chapter 6: International Military Tribunal for the Far East

Chapter 7: Anton Dostler

Chapter 8: War of aggression

Chapter 9: Nuremberg Charter

Chapter 10: Subsequent Nuremberg trials

(II) Answering the public top questions about war crimes trial.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of War Crimes Trial.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jun 23, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: War crimes trial

The trial of individuals who are accused of committing criminal violations of the laws and customs of war as well as associated principles of international law while they were engaged in armed conflict is referred to as a war crimes trial.

During the year 1474, an ad hoc tribunal of the Holy Roman Empire tried Peter von Hagenbach for war crimes. This trial was the first international war crimes prosecution, and it was also the first trial of command responsibility. Hagenbach justified himself by stating that he was merely obeying orders from the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, to whom the Holy Roman Empire had granted Breisach. This was despite the fact that he was guilty of crimes, which meant that he as a knight was deemed to have a duty to prevent..

Henry Wirz, a Confederate lieutenant, was found guilty and executed by hanging in 1865 for the horrible conditions that existed in Andersonville Prison during the American Civil War. This prison was the location where a large number of Union soldiers were executed.

Breaker Morant, Peter Handcock, Alfred Taylor, and several other officers were sent to court-martial by the British Army during the Second Boer War for the repeated deaths of prisoners of war and a large number of civilians who were not involved in the conflict in the Northern Transvaal (for more information, see Court-martial of Breaker Morant).

During the Leipzig War Crimes Trials, which took place after World War I, a small number of German service members were brought before a German court to answer for crimes that they were accused of committing during the war.

It was stated in Article 227 of the deal of Versailles, which was the peace deal that was signed between Germany and the Allied Powers during the First World War, that publicly arraign[ed] William II of Hohenzollern, formerly German Emperor, for a supreme offence against international morality and the sanctity of treaties. Moreover, he was not hauled before a judge for trial. Due to the fact that Germany was a signatory to the pact, it was therefore made aware of the potential outcomes that could occur in the event of a subsequent war.

When the word was used after World War II, it typically referred to the trials of German and Japanese leaders that took place in courts that were established by the Allied nations that had won the war.

Under the authority of two different legal documents, the previous trials were conducted in Nuremberg, which is located in Germany. One of these was the London Charter, which was signed in London on August 8, 1945 by representatives of the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, France, and the Soviet Union. The other was Law No. 10, which was promulgated by the Allied Control Council in Berlin on December 20, 1945.

In order to prosecute those who have committed war crimes, the London Charter stipulated that the International Military Tribunal would be established. This tribunal would consist of one judge and one alternate judge from each of the states that had signed the charter. Crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity were the three categories of crimes that were charged against defendants under the London Charter. Crimes against peace were crimes that involved the planning, initiating, and waging of a war of aggression. War crimes were violations of the laws and customs of war as embodied in the Hague Conventions and generally recognized by military forces of civilized nations. Crimes against humanity included the extermination of racial, ethnic, and religious groups, as well as other atrocities committed against civilians.

First German general to be tried for war crimes by a United States military trial at the Palace of Justice in Rome on October 8, 1945, Anton Dostler was the first German general to be convicted for war crimes. During the month of March in 1944, he was accused of giving orders to execute fifteen American soldiers who had been captured during Operation Ginny II in Italy. Although he admitted to having ordered the death, he argued that he could not be held responsible for it because he had only been carrying out the instructions that were given to him by his superiors. The killing of fifteen United States prisoners of war in Italy was an application of Hitler's Commando Order of 1942, which commanded the immediate execution of all Allied commandos, regardless of whether they were wearing proper uniforms or not, without trial if they were arrested by German forces. Dostler received the order to carry out this execution. The defense of Superior Orders was not accepted by the tribunal, and war crimes were determined to have been committed by Dostler. On December 1, 1945, he was put to death by a firing squad after being found guilty of the crime and condemned to death.

The Dostler case established a precedent for the Nuremberg trials of German generals, officials, and Nazi leaders, which began in November 1945. The Dostler case demonstrated that the use of superior orders as a defense did not absolve officers of the responsibility of carrying out illegal orders or the liability of being punished in court. This principle was enshrined in Principle IV of the Nuremberg Principles, and other principles that are analogous to it can be found in various sections of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

For the purpose of putting into effect the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Declaration, the Instrument of Surrender, and the Moscow Conference, the trials for the Japanese war criminals were organized in Tokyo, Japan. Although the Potsdam Declaration, which was issued in July 1945, said that stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our prisoners, it did not mention foresee trials. There was a significant amount of dispute, not only among the Allies but also within their administrations, on who should be tried and how they should be tried. General Douglas MacArthur, who was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, made the decision to begin arrests despite the fact that there was no consensus among the Allied powers. A week after the surrender, on September 11, he issued an order for the arrest of 39 individuals, the majority of whom were members of the war cabinet that Prime Minister Hideki Tojo had assembled. When Tojo attempted to take his own life, he was resuscitated by medical professionals from the United States. In the end, he was not only found guilty but also executed by hanging.

On October 18, 1945, the chief prosecutors filed an indictment with the tribunal, charging 24 individuals with a variety of crimes and atrocities. These crimes and atrocities