International court issues arrest warrant for Putin over alleged war crimes
THE HAGUE — The International Criminal Court said Friday it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.
Although world leaders have been indicted before, it was the first time the ICC has issued a warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.The court said in a statement that Mr. Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
It also issued a warrant Friday for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna LvovaBelova, the commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations.The move was immediately dismissed by Moscow and welcomed by Ukraine as a major breakthrough. Its practical implications, though, could well be limited, at least in the short term.
The moral condemnation, however, likely could stain Mr. Putin forever.
“He has lost all his political credibility around the world. Any world leader who stands by him will be shamed as well,” David Crane, a former international prosecutor, told The Associated Press.
The court’s president, Piotr Hofmanski, said that while the ICC’s judges have issued the warrants, it will be up to the international community to enforce them. The court has no police force of its own to do so.
“The judges issued arrest warrants. The execution depends on international cooperation,” he said.
The court can impose a maximum sentence of life imprisonment “when justified by the extreme gravity of the crime and the individual circumstances of the convicted person,” according to its founding treaty, known as the Rome Statute.
Still, the chances of an ICC trial of any Russians remains unlikely, as Moscow does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that Russia considers ICC decisions “legally void.” He added that Russia considers the court’s move “outrageous and unacceptable.”
Ukraine’s human rights chief, Dmytro Lubinets, has said that based on data from the country’s National Information Bureau, 16,226 children were deported. Ukraine has managed to bring back 308.
Ms. Lvova-Belova reacted with dripping sarcasm. “It is great that the international community has appreciated the work to help the children of our country, that we do not leave them in war zones, that we take them out, we create good conditions for them, that we surround them with loving, caring people.”
Ukrainian officials were jubilant.
“The world changed,” said presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the “wheels of justice are turning,” and added that “international criminals will be held accountable for stealing children and other international crimes.”
While Ukraine also is not a member of the international court, it has granted it jurisdiction over its territory. Besides Russia and Ukraine, the United States and China are not members of the 123-member global court.
The ICC said its pre-trial chamber found “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, in prejudice of Ukrainian children.”
The court statement said that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Putin bears individual criminal responsibility” for the child abductions “for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others” and for failing to “exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts.”
After his most recent visit earlier this month, ICC prosecutor Khan said he visited a care home for children just over a mile from front lines in southern Ukraine. “The drawings pinned on the wall ... spoke to a context of love and support that was once there,” he said in a statement. “But this home was empty, a result of alleged deportation of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation or their unlawful transfer to other parts of the temporarily occupied territories.”
”As I noted to the United Nations Security Council last September, these alleged acts are being investigated by my office as a priority. Children cannot be treated as the spoils of war,” Mr. Khan said.
And while Russia rejected the allegations and warrants of the court as null and void, others said the ICC action will have an important impact.
“This is an important day for justice and for the citizens of Ukraine,” Mr. Crane said in a written comment to the AP.