THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The International Criminal Court on Friday introduced it had issued an arrest warrant towards Russian President Vladimir Putin for the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian kids.
The Hague-based ICC stated it had additionally issued a warrant towards Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for kids’s rights, on related prices.
Moscow dismissed on Friday choices by the ICC as having “no meaning” for Russia.
“The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view,” Russian overseas ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated on social media.
“Possible ‘recipes’ for arrest coming from the international court will be legally void as far as we are concerned,” she added with out referring to Putin by identify.
Russia will not be a member of the ICC. It was unclear how the ICC deliberate to implement the warrant.
“Today, pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court issued warrants of arrest for two individuals in the context of the situation in Ukraine: Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Ms Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova,” the ICC stated in an announcement.
Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
The ICC stated the crimes dated from February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes,” it stated.
Putin was allegedly accountable each straight by committing the acts and for “failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission.”
The arrest warrants are being saved secret to guard victims and witnesses, it stated.
The ICC is a court docket of final resort for crimes that nations can not or is not going to prosecute warfare crimes and crimes towards humanity.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan launched an investigation into alleged warfare crimes and crimes towards humanity in Ukraine simply days after Russia’s invasion.
‘Spoils of warfare’
Khan stated earlier this month after a go to to Ukraine that the alleged abductions of youngsters “are being investigated by my office as a priority”.
“Children cannot be treated as the spoils of war,” he stated in an announcement on March 7.
Posting an image of himself alongside empty cots, Khan stated he had visited a care house for kids in southern Ukraine that was “empty, a result of alleged deportation of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation” or different occupied areas.
Khan additionally confirmed that the ICC was investigating assaults on “critical civilian infrastructure” in Ukraine and that he had visited the websites of a number of such strikes.
Along with Ukraine’s prosecutor basic “we underlined our collective commitment to ensure that such acts are fully investigated and those responsible for alleged international crimes held to account,” he added.
The ICC prosecutor added within the assertion that he had a “sense that the momentum towards justice is accelerating.”
Khan has beforehand described Ukraine as a “crime scene”, and has additionally visited the city of Bucha the place AFP journalists noticed at the very least 20 our bodies mendacity in a avenue.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC, however Kyiv has accepted the court docket’s jurisdiction and is working with Khan’s workplace.
Russia denies allegations of warfare crimes by its troops. Experts have stated it’s unlikely it could ever hand over any suspects. — Agence France-Presse
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
