Interpretation of Class A War Criminals
The reason why the title of "Class-A war criminal" is used is that in Article 6 of the Charter of the Far East International Military Tribunal and Article 5 of the Charter of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal, the crime of violating peace is listed as item (a) of the court's jurisdiction, that is, the first item is also the most important one, while ordinary war crimes and crimes against humanity are listed as items B and C respectively.
Twenty-two major Nazi war criminals, such as Goering, who was tried by Nuremberg Tribunal, and 28 major Japanese war criminals, such as tojo hideki, who was tried by Tokyo Tribunal, were mainly accused of violating peace or aggression. Therefore, these people are often referred to as "Class A war criminals", and these two trials are also often referred to as the trials of Class A war criminals in Germany and Japan.
"Class-A war criminals" are mostly the chief culprit in the war of aggression. They have two main characteristics: first, they have high status and great power, and they belong to the scope of the state.
Second, they all committed the crime (a) stipulated in the Nuremberg Charter and the Tokyo Charter-the crime of undermining peace, that is, the crime of planning, preparing, launching or carrying out a war of aggression, which is considered by the court as "the biggest international crime", including the sum of all evils.
According to general international practice, the vast majority of Class A war criminals are tried by international military courts, while Class B or C war criminals who commit ordinary war crimes or crimes against humanity are generally tried by domestic or local military courts in countries where atrocities occur.