Putin arrest

ICC issues arrest warrant for Putin The bold legal move will obligate the Court's 123 member states to arrest the Russian president and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory. Moscow has denied allegations of war crimes since it invaded Ukraine in February last year. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: "The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view. Advertisement "Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it." Could Putin be arrested and put on trial? Legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg told Sky News the arrest warrant was a "dramatic move" by the ICC prosecutor. But he said Mr Putin is "not going to stand trial unless he is arrested - and he's not going to be arrested while he remains running Russia". The same applies to Ms Lvova-Belova, he added. Mr Rozenberg said that since the ICC has no police force of its own, it relies on states to cooperate with it. Image: Joshua Rozenberg He added: "As things stand, nothing very much is going to happen in the short term. "Nevertheless, it does show that there is the possibility of criminal charges - something that Putin would have been well aware of ever since he started this." He continued: "This is the beginning of what many people hope will lead to international criminal justice. "But clearly, so long as he remains in charge and remains...

What are the charges against Putin? The ICC has charged Putin over Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian children under two articles of the Rome Statute, which established the court: unlawful deportations of civilians, and unlawfully moving them from occupied Ukraine into Russia. Additionally, the ICC issued an arrest warrant under the same charges for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Putin’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, who is believed to be in charge of programs involving children. The announcement follows a report from the United Nations Human Rights Council on “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, in prejudice of Ukrainian children,” the ICC said in a statement. Although the exact number of children who have been moved to Russia is unknown, both Russian and Ukrainian authorities have said that hundreds of thousands of children have been moved into Russia, according to the U.N.’s report. Russian officials allegedly placed children with foster families and granted them Russian citizenship, including children who had lost or been separated from their parents, or were separated when their parents were detained. Russia has publicly acknowledged the program, but has argued that the children were transferred for their own protection. But other reports have disputed this, includin...

Read more The warrants are the first to be issued by the ICC for crimes committed in the Gaddafi was toppled and killed months after his warrant was announced. Bashir was also ousted and is currently in jail in Sudan, though he has yet to be transferred to The Hague. Putin is likely to evade justice in the near future: In deciding to issue the warrants, the ICC pre-trial chamber of judges considered keeping the warrants secret but decided that making them public could “contribute to the prevention of the further commission of crimes”. 01:09 ICC issuing Putin an arrest warrant a 'historic moment', says Dominic Raab – video It is unclear how many children have been taken from Ukraine by Russian forces. Last month, the Khan said “My office alleges that these acts, amongst others, demonstrate an intention to permanently remove these children from their own country,” Khan said. “We must ensure that those responsible for alleged crimes are held accountable and that children are returned to their families and communities … We cannot allow children to be treated as if they are the spoils of war.” “There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes,” the ICC judges’ statement said, adding that he both committed the acts directly and failed to stop others from doing so. The Kremlin was defiant in the face of the ICC announcement. “The decisions of the international criminal court have no meaning for our countr...

‘Putin and his cabal now know they are persona non grata in most continents of the world and liable to be arrested if they travel outside Russia.’ Photograph: Mikhael Klimentyev/Sputnik/ Kremlin pool/EPA ‘Putin and his cabal now know they are persona non grata in most continents of the world and liable to be arrested if they travel outside Russia.’ Photograph: Mikhael Klimentyev/Sputnik/ Kremlin pool/EPA The Russian leader’s The South African action is important because in April the supreme decision-making body of the ruling African National Congress had complained about the “unequal” and “often selective application of international law”. Ramaphosa reported that the ANC had decided to withdraw South Africa from membership of the court, although it was later clarified as an “ ‘Cyril Ramaphosa, right, has concluded that Vladimir Putin’s presence at Brics would violate international law and the laws of South Africa.’ Photograph: Sergei Chirikov/AP The campaign to arrest Putin comes at a significant moment in the war, with Ukrainian troops about to move on to the front foot with a spring offensive designed to retake control of the bridgehead to Crimea. Running an “arrest Putin” campaign alongside this military counterattack piles additional pressure on the leader and his cabal, who now know they are persona non grata in most continents of the world and liable to be arrested if they travel outside Russia. As the Ukrainian Nobel peace laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk has argued, ...

March 20 (Reuters) - Russia's top investigative body said on Monday it had opened a criminal case against the International Criminal Court prosecutor and judges who issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges. The move was a symbolic gesture of defiance, three days after the ICC accused Putin and his children's commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova of the war crime of deporting children from Ukraine to Russia. The state Investigative Committee said there were no grounds for criminal liability on Putin's part, and heads of state enjoyed absolute immunity under a 1973 U.N. convention. The ICC prosecutor's actions showed signs of being crimes under Russian law, the committee said, including knowingly accusing an innocent person of a crime. The prosecutor and judges were also suspected of "preparing an attack on a representative of a foreign state enjoying international protection, in order to complicate international relations". The Kremlin has called the issuing of the warrant outrageous but legally void, as Russia is not a signatory to the treaty that created the ICC. On Monday it said the court's move was a sign of the The ICC officials targeted in the Russian investigation are prosecutor Karim Khan and judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez. "The criminal prosecution is obviously illegal, since there are no grounds for criminal liability," the Russian statement said. The ICC's move obliges the court's 123 ...

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes,” the court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, said its pre-trial judges had assessed. It added that Putin had failed to “exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control.” Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Putin's presidential commissioner for children's rights, is also alleged to have committed similar crimes, the ICC said. Karim Khan, who serves as chief prosecutor of the ICC, said in a statement that the evidence indicates that Putin and Lvova-Belova “bear criminal responsibility” for the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. “We must ensure that those responsible for alleged crimes are held accountable and that children are returned to their families and communities,” he said. Putin's press secretary Dmitriy Peskov rejected the findings of the international court, “We do not recognize this court, we do not recognize the jurisdiction of this court. This is how we treat this,” he said in a Telegram post. Vladimir Putin at a military parade in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on July 25, 2021. Mikhail Svetlov / Getty Images file While warrants are often issued in secret “to protect victims and witnesses and also to safeguard the investigation,” the release said that the court was “mindful that the conduct addressed in the pres...