The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant against Putin for the forced deportation of Ukrainian children

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. under the assumption of a war crime for the forced deportation of Ukrainian children from the territories conquered during the Ukrainian war to Russian territory.

According to Europa Press, the ICC also issued an arrest warrant for the same reason against the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights of the Russian Federation Maria Alekseevna Lvova-Belova, the court announced in a statement.

The court understands “reasonable grounds” to believe that Putin “has individual criminal responsibility” for these crimes, either for their “direct” commission or for the impossibility of “exercising adequate control over the civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts”.

Practically, the arrest requires the secret agreement of those countries through which the Russian president can move, who has already reduced his trips abroad in the last year. So, the step taken by the court in The Hague is the first legal challenge against Putin, but it is far from the final one.

Before issuing the arrest warrant for the Russian president, the CFI was already awaiting the arrest of 15 more people, totaling more than 200 charges related to the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Libya, Ivory Coast and Sudan. Darfur region. The Rome Statute, the cornerstone of the ICC, establishes that the court cannot try any accused in absenceIn other words, it demands that the person in question sit on the dock and personally answer for the crimes he is accused of. However, it does not have an institution that could make an arrest, so it depends on the member states.

Currently, 123 countries have signed the Rome Statute, but they do not include Russia or other allies of Putin himself, such as China or Belarus. In this regard, The Hague reminds in its documents that the signature of the Rome Statute is not necessary for the arrest of a fugitive and that in the past it has already sought the cooperation of foreign countries.

In 2015, the Republic of South Africa avoided the arrest of the then president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, claiming immunity for attending the African Union summit. Once detained, the suspect follows a process that initially depends on the institutions of the country where the arrest took place. He must appear before the competent judicial authorities who will examine whether the laws have been respected and whether it is possible to hand him over to the TPI, in a procedure that is different from the extradition process.

For his part, Efe reported that a total of 16,220 Ukrainian children have been deported from the country since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine according to the Ukrainian Ombudsman.

The institution reports on its Facebook profile the total number of minors who were deported until February 6, which is collected by the Ukrainian state portal Children of War. They also ensure that in this period another 350 children were reported missing and a total of 9,510 minors who could not be traced since the beginning of the conflict were located.

The Ukrainian prosecutor thanks The Hague for the arrest warrant for Putin

Ukraine’s Attorney General thanked the International Criminal Court (ICC) today for the arrest warrant issued by this Hague-based court against the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, on charges of illegally deporting Ukrainian children to Russia.

“I personally thank the ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan for this historic decision,” wrote the head of the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office Andriy Kostin on his Twitter, reminding that the Ukrainian judicial system is investigating the forced deportation to Russia of more than 16,000 Ukrainian children from territories occupied by Moscow.

“We fear that the real numbers are much higher,” added Ukraine’s attorney general, who also explained that Kyiv authorities had shared more than 40 volumes and 1,000 pages of evidence documenting the cases with The Hague.

Kostin reminded that the order issued by The Hague obliges the countries that are members of the court to arrest and hand over the Russian president to the ICC. “World leaders should think carefully before shaking hands or sitting down with Putin,” emphasized the Ukrainian prosecutor.

Ukraine has launched several proceedings against Russia in The Hague for more than 70,000 Russian war crimes it claims have been documented on the territory.

It is the first time in history that the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for the president of a country that is a member of the UN Security Council.