The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday issued an
arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin of
Russia for
war crimes, saying
that he bore individual criminal responsibility for the abduction and
deportation of Ukrainian children since Russia’s invasion last year.
اضافة اعلان
Human rights groups hailed the warrant as an important step
toward ending impunity for Russian war crimes in Ukraine. The likelihood of a
trial while Putin remains in power appears slim, because the court cannot try
defendants in absentia and Russia has said it will not surrender its own
officials.
“With these arrest warrants, the ICC has made Putin a wanted man and taken its first step to end the impunity that has emboldened perpetrators in Russia’s war against Ukraine for far too long.”
Still, the warrant deepens
Putin’s isolation in the West and
could limit his movements overseas.
The court also issued a warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s
commissioner for children’s rights. She has been the public face of a
Kremlin-sponsored program in which Ukrainian children and teenagers have been
taken to Russia.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry quickly dismissed the warrants, noting
that it is not a party to the court.
The court said in a statement “that there are reasonable grounds
to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful
deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from
occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
“Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it."
The
ICC does not recognize immunity for heads of state in cases
involving war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide.
The Kremlin has denied accusations of war crimes but has not
been secretive about the transfers of Ukrainian children to Russia, depicting
them as adoptions of abandoned children and promoting the program as a
patriotic and humanitarian effort.
“This is a big day for the many victims of crimes committed by
Russian forces in Ukraine since 2014,” said Balkees Jarrah, the associate
director for international justice at Human Rights Watch. “With these arrest
warrants, the ICC has made Putin a wanted man and taken its first step to end
the impunity that has emboldened perpetrators in Russia’s war against Ukraine
for far too long.”
The court’s limitations are well known: Although it can indict sitting heads of state, it has no power to arrest them or bring them to trial, instead relying on other leaders and governments to act as its sheriffs around the world.
Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry,
said the announcement had “no meaning for our country, including from a legal
point of view.”
“Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it,” she said. “Russia is not
cooperating with this body,” calling any efforts by the ICC to make arrests
“legally null and void for us.”
Ukrainian officials said the decision in effect branded Russia a
criminal government and made the world a much smaller place for Putin. If the
Russian leader travels to a state that is party to the ICC, that country must
arrest him, according to its obligations under international law.
“This is just the beginning,” Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said in a statement.
But the court’s limitations are well known: Although it can
indict sitting heads of state, it has no power to arrest them or bring them to
trial, instead relying on other leaders and governments to act as its sheriffs
around the world. This has been most prominently illustrated by the case of
Sudan’s president,
Omar Al-Bashir, who was indicted by the court but has been
not been arrested in other countries where he has traveled.
A New York Times investigation published in October identified
several Ukrainian children who had been taken away under Russia’s systematic
resettlement efforts. They described a wrenching process of coercion, deception,
and force, and upon arrival in Russia or Russian-occupied territories, they are
often placed in homes to become Russian citizens and subjected to reeducation
efforts. Russia has defended the transfers on humanitarian grounds.
On Thursday, a UN commission of inquiry said that Russia’s
transfer of children and other civilians from Ukraine to Russia may amount to a
war crime, observing that none of the cases they investigated were justified
under international law. Ukraine has reported the transfer of 16,221 children
to Russia, but the commission said it had not been able to verify the number.
The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has said the illegal
transfers of children were a priority for his investigators. “Children cannot
be treated as the spoils of war,” he said after visiting a children’s home in
southern Ukraine this month that he said had been emptied as a result of
alleged deportations.
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