Putting a country’s leader on trial once seemed unimaginable. But as journalist Steve Crawshaw makes clear in his new book – a blend of eyewitness reporting and history, including recent stories from the front lines of justice in Ukraine and Palestine – the possibilities of what can happen have been transformed. With host Daniel Hahn.

As Russia and East Europe editor and then Germany bureau chief at The Independent, Steven Crawshaw led the coverage of the East European revolutions, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Balkan wars, with his interviewees ranging from Lech Walesa and Slobodan Milosevic to Aung San Suu Kyi. He is former UK director and UN advocacy director at Human Rights Watch; director at Amnesty International; and since 2018 has been policy and advocacy director at Freedom from Torture.

Photo © Tom Pilston