ICC judges issue arrest warrant for Putin over war crimes in Ukraine (updated)

ICC Holdings

17/03/2023 15:20

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      ICC: Putin responsible for illegal deportation of children
    

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      Kremlin says arrest warrants 'outrageous and unacceptable'
    

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      Putin is third serving head of state to get ICC arrest
warrant
    

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      Warrant also issued for Russia's top children's rights
official
    

  
 (Adds expert comment, context, reactions from EU, Ukraine,
Russia)
    By Bart H. Meijer and Stephanie van den Berg
       AMSTERDAM, March 17 (Reuters) - The International
Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant on Friday against
Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the war crime
of illegal deportation of at least 100 children from Ukraine.
    The bold legal move will obligate the court's 123 member
states to arrest Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial
if he sets foot on their territory.
    Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations that its forces
have committed atrocities during its one-year invasion of its
neighbour and the Kremlin branded the court decision as "null
and void".
    Neither Russia not Ukraine are members of the ICC, although
Kyiv granted it jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed on
its territory. The tribunal has no police force of its own and
relies on member countries to detain and transfer suspects to
The Hague for trial.
    While it is unlikely that Putin will end up in court any
time soon, the warrant means that he could be arrested and sent
to The Hague if travelling to any ICC member states. 
    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia found the very
questions raised by the ICC "outrageous and unacceptable".
    Asked if Putin now feared travelling to countries that
recognised the ICC, Peskov said: "I have nothing to add on this
subject. That's all we want to say."
    Stephen Rapp, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues
under former president Barack Obama, said: "This makes Putin a
pariah. If he travels he risks arrest. This never goes away.
Russia cannot gain relief from sanctions without compliance with
the warrants."
        Putin is the third serving president to be the target of
an ICC arrest warrant, after Sudan's Omar al-Bashir and Libya's
Muammar Gaddafi.
  
    Reuters reported earlier this week that the court was
expected to issue warrants.   
    
    DEPORTATION OF CHILDREN
    In its first warrant for Ukraine, the ICC called for Putin's
arrest on suspicion of unlawful deportation of children and
unlawful transfer of people from the territory of Ukraine to the
Russian Federation.
    "The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied
territory at least from 24 February 2022. There are reasonable
grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal
responsibility for the aforementioned crimes," it said.
        Ukraine's top prosecutor, Andriy Kostin, hailed the ICC
move as a "a historic decision for Ukraine and the entire
international law system".
  
        European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said
it was just the start of "holding Russia accountable for its
crimes and atrocities in Ukraine".
  
        Some Russians saw the hand of the United States in the
ICC decision.
  
        "Yankees, hands off Putin!" wrote parliament speaker
Vyacheslav Volodin, a close ally of the president, on Telegram,
saying the move was evidence of Western "hysteria".
  
        "We regard any attacks on the President of the Russian
Federation as aggression against our country," he said.    
  
    The court also issued a warrant on Friday for Maria
Lvova-Belova, Russia's Commissioner for Children's Rights, on
the same charges. She responded to the news with irony,
according to RIA Novosti agency: "It's great that the
international community has appreciated the work to help the
children of our country."
    Ukraine has said more than 16,000 children have been
illegally transferred to Russia or Russian-occupied territories
in Ukraine. 
    A U.S.-backed report by Yale University researchers last
month said Russia has held at least 6,000 Ukrainian children at
sites in Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
    The report identified at least 43 camps and other facilities
where Ukrainian children have been held that were part of a
"large-scale systematic network" operated by Moscow since its
February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
    Russia has not concealed a programme under which it has
brought thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, but presents
it as a humanitarian campaign to protect orphans and children
abandoned in the conflict zone.
    ICC prosecutor Karim Khan opened the investigation into
possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in
Ukraine a year ago. He highlighted during four trips to Ukraine
that he was looking at alleged crimes against children and the
targeting of civilian infrastructure.
    

 (Additional reporting by Toby Sterling and Charlotte Van
Campenhout
Writing by Anthony Deutsch  Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and
Gareth Jones)
 ((Bart.Meijer@thomsonreuters.com;))