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Article 85 - Offences Committed Before Capture

from I - General Provisions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2021

Compiled by
International Committee of the Red Cross
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Summary

Article 85 belongs to the general provisions of the chapter onpenal and disciplinary sanctions. According to the article, ifprisoners of war are prosecuted for acts committed prior to capture,they retain the benefits of the Convention, even upon conviction.This constitutes a deliberate reversal of the practice establishedduring the war crimes trials held at the end of the Second WorldWar, where a captured combatant accused of having committed a warcrime was considered to have forfeited the right to prisoner-of-warstatus and to the benefits of the 1929 Geneva Convention onPrisoners of War, including its judicial guarantees.

Type
Chapter
Information
Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention
Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War
 , pp. 1310 - 1321
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

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