The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin.
This was reported on the website of the court on March 17.
Putin’s arrest warrant issued on charges of war crimes in Ukraine, BBC reports. The Pre-trial Investigation Chamber did this in connection with the situation in Ukraine.
Putin is suspected of illegally deporting children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia. As the court explained, there are “reasonable grounds” for believing that Putin is personally responsible for this.
In addition to Putin, the International Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s Children’s Ombudsman Maria Lvovskaya-Belova.
The fact that the International Court of Justice will open an investigation into the case against Russia for the war in Ukraine was reported last week.
Now the Russian president has the official status of a suspect in an international crime – the illegal forced transfer of Ukrainian children. The International Criminal Court has issued warrants for the arrest of Russian President Putin and Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Lvovo-Belova.
This means that outside of Russia, Putin must be arrested and brought to trial. And world leaders will think thrice before squeezing his hand or sitting down at the negotiating table with him. This is a historic decision for Ukraine and the entire system of international law,” Prosecutor General Andrei Kostin said.
Putin and Lvov-Belov are suspected of committing a war crime of illegal deportation and transfer of children from the occupied regions of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, which has been going on since at least February 24, 2022.
The Chamber of Pre-Trial Proceedings, on the basis of petitions from the Prosecutor’s Office dated February 22, 2023, ruled that there are sufficient grounds to believe that each suspect is responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of the population and illegal transfer of the population from the occupied regions of Ukraine to the Russian Federation. the message says.
The Chamber notes that it considers the arrest warrants secret “for the protection of victims and witnesses and for the purpose of securing an investigation.”
However, considering that the conduct in question in this situation is likely to continue and that public awareness of warrants may help prevent further crime, the Chamber considers that it is in the interests of justice to authorize the Registry to make public the existence of warrants, the names of suspects, crimes for which warrants have been issued and penalties established by the Chamber,” announced Piotr Hofmansky, Acting President of the International Criminal Court.
The New York Times on March 13, citing sources, wrote that in the near future the ISS will open two cases against Russian officials due to alleged crimes in Ukraine: one due to the deportation of Ukrainian children, the second due to deliberate attacks on civilians. infrastructure
Against the backdrop of these reports, the Kremlin recalled that Russia does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
Source: Racurs
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