«International Criminal Court». Did you make a mistake in issuing a decision to arrest Putin?
Putin is the most prominent figure for whom the court has issued an arrest warrant in its history. AFP
The arrest warrant put Biden in trouble. Reuters
Karim Khan visited Croatia several times. EPA.
Russian forces are accused of war crimes in Ukraine. A.B
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Russian President Vladimir Putin is not the first president to issue an international arrest warrant on charges of responsibility for the war crime of deporting Ukrainian children, at least hundreds, perhaps more, to Russia, but the prospects of his appearance before the International Criminal Court seem non-existent due to a set of reasons, the most important of which is that Russia is not a party to the system of the International Court, and the second is that many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America refuse to cooperate with the Court's decisions because they consider them politicized, and some countries Even in Europe, the Court's decision was seen as a reason to strain the atmosphere and prolong the war rather than a contribution to easing tensions and reaching a solution to the conflict. Through the following investigation, we will attempt to review the views of all parties and the chances of implementing the Court's decision.
US analyst Marty Flacks: This is not the first time the court has prosecuted a head of state
Putin's arrest warrant puts America in a big bind
A few days ago, at the request of the ICC Chief Prosecutor, Karim Khan, the ICC judges issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova Belova. It was not the first time the court had prosecuted a head of state, but President Putin is the most prominent figure for whom the court has issued an arrest warrant in its 22-year history.
3 questions
Marty Flaks, director of the Human Rights Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says in an analysis published by the center's website that Putin's case will be one of the most complex cases before the International Criminal Court. It also raises three vital questions, shedding light on how the arrest warrant was issued, how the case was handled, and what it means for efforts to hold Russian leaders accountable for their actions in Ukraine.
Flux begins his questions with a question about how the court obtained jurisdiction to investigate Putin, to answer that Ukraine and Russia are not members of the International Criminal Court, a membership that gives the court automatic jurisdiction, to investigate Russia's actions during its war in Ukraine, but Ukraine after the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2015, the court was given jurisdiction to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by Russian forces on Ukrainian territory, and as a result and after the claim of 39 member states. In court investigating war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, the chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, was able to open the investigation within weeks of the start of the war in late February 2022. Over the past year, Khan has assembled the largest investigative team in the court's history, with permanent investigators in Ukraine. Khan himself visited Ukraine several times. This broad investigation was one of a few conducted as the conflict continued, thanks to unprecedented support from the Ukrainian government and the cooperation of many European governments.
Accusations
The second question Flux is trying to answer concerns the accusations against Putin and their causes. He says Putin and Lvova Belova are accused of war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court for overseeing the forcible transfer of a number of Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied territory in eastern Ukraine to Russia. The transfer or deportation of population from occupied territory during an international armed conflict is used to weaken internal resistance and facilitate control over occupied territory, an act of war crime under international law. The scale and objectives of the deportation could turn it from a war crime into a crime against humanity and genocide, a charge that Putin has yet to be charged.
Although reports of forced population transfers from Russian-occupied areas in eastern Ukraine have emerged since the beginning of the war, in recent months there has been detailed information on the full extent of these operations and the groups of the population most affected. Last November, the Associated Press news agency published an investigation that revealed many horrific stories of families affected by deportations, while the Yale School of Public Health published on February 14 a report providing documented evidence of the transfer of at least 6000,<> unaccompanied children to Russia since the beginning of the war, where the focus is on orphaned children or separated from their parents, which makes this program really scary, which is what made the prosecution at the International Criminal Court start with this Accusations.
Personal responsibility
One of the reasons for starting this charge in prosecuting Putin is that the ICC mainly targets senior officials implicated in the most serious international crimes. At the same time, the standards of personal criminal responsibility of the accused are very high, so the prosecution must prove that the official was personally involved in the commission of the crime in question, such as having committed it himself, ordered or used it, or deliberately ignored the commission by his direct subordinates. Although it may appear that Putin is ordering war crimes committed in Ukraine, prosecutors must link the different objects together in court so that Putin can be directly linked to those crimes so that he can be convicted.
What's more?
The third and final question concerns what happens after the indictment and issuance of an arrest warrant for Putin.
Flux says this case is just the beginning, and that the ICC will bring further charges against both senior Russian civilian and military officials, and possibly Putin himself again. News reports say Prosecutor General Khan is currently investigating Russia's targeting of infrastructure, including power plants, in Ukraine. At the same time, Ukraine's prosecutor has identified more than 65,<> war crimes he says were committed by Russian forces. Very few of these charges will reach the criminal court, while hundreds, perhaps thousands, will be heard by Ukrainian and European courts in the coming years.
Just the beginning
This is just the beginning of the ongoing case against Putin and may remain so for some time, as the ICC does not try anyone in absentia, so you need Putin to surrender to it, or be arrested by any government cooperating with the court, in order to start hearing the case, as the court does not have a police or law enforcement force, but rather relies on the local authorities of member states to implement its decisions.
Of course, ICC member states will face legal and political pressure to arrest Putin if he visits one of these countries, although the record of countries around the world dealing with ICC decisions, including the decision to arrest former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2009, does not indicate the possibility of such cooperation, especially since Putin will of course not consider visiting the United States and its allies in Europe and Asia, which may be more prepared to carry out the arrest warrant.
Increased pressures
Perhaps one of the most important results of President Putin's arrest warrant is increasing pressure on the United States to determine what assistance it can provide to the International Criminal Court, as the relationship between the United States and the International Court since its establishment in 1998 has ranged between disregard and hostility, including the imposition of US sanctions on the former chief prosecutor of the Court, and the passage of a law in Congress that allows the use of military force to release any American citizen arrested by the International Criminal Court, but the conflict in Ukraine has changed the orientation towards the Court within U.S. Congress.
In late 2022, Congress relaxed laws limiting U.S. cooperation with the court in the case of Ukraine, and both Republicans and Democrats announced their support for the court's investigation into war crimes in Ukraine.
The irony is that it is the Biden administration that is obstructing cooperation, because the Pentagon refuses to share intelligence on Russian war crimes in Ukraine, fearing that it will set a precedent for any future cases against American citizens. When justice ministers from around the world gather in London this week to declare support for the ICC investigation into Ukraine, pressure will mount on the United States to make a final decision, meaning Putin's arrest warrant has put the United States in a major bind.
Khan's extensive investigation was one of the few conducted as the conflict continued, thanks to unprecedented support from the Ukrainian government and the cooperation of many European governments.
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A war crime that Ukraine's prosecutor says was committed by Russian forces.
Although it may appear that Putin is the one who orders war crimes committed in Ukraine, the prosecution must link the different objects together in court to allow Putin to be directly linked to those crimes in order to be convicted.
■ On February 14, the Yale School of Public Health published a report providing documented evidence of the transfer of at least 6000,<> children without their parents to Russia since the beginning of the war, where the focus is on orphaned or separated children, which makes this program already scary, which is why the prosecution at the International Criminal Court begins these accusations.