The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, but the question everyone is asking is: Is the Russian President really in danger of being arrested? Russia did not recognize it in court in The Hague, but the president, accused of deporting civilians from Ukraine, risks being officially arrested if he crosses national borders, while he is essentially safe on Russian soil. US President Biden commented that he “clearly committed war crimes”, but at the moment it seems very difficult to assume that Putin will be handcuffed in the near future.
What is the International Criminal Court?
The International Criminal Court (ICC) expresses itself on crimes of absolute importance to the international community: genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The legal basis of the Court, which is headquartered in The Hague, is the Rome Statute, which was adopted in 1998 and entered into force in 2002. Protecting the perpetrators of such crimes thus contributes to the prevention of new crimes”. Court jurisdiction is established when a state ratifies the Statute or formalizes its position through an ad hoc declaration such as signed by Ukraine for crimes committed on its territory since 2013.
The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Putin for “illegal deportation” of Ukrainian children “has more than symbolic value: it is another building block for undermining the Russian President and his image at home and abroad”. explains Cuno Tarfusser, former Italian judge of the CPI. It is a matter of “a judicial sanction, the judicial sword of Damocles, added to the economic sanctions and the UN votes by a large majority and condemning us to war”.
Arrest warrant for Putin
The court-issued arrest warrant “does not only have symbolic value – it underlines the magistrate – it certainly has a judicial appraisal value with the judicial stamp that war crimes have been committed”, after months of investigation by judges in The Hague. Instead, it is symbolic “in terms of enforceability” because Russia did not ratify the Statute of Rome, which established the Court. “But even this, he explains, has a limitation – by the fact that the range of movement of those affected by the mandate is further restricted: Putin will not be able to leave Russia’s borders without risking being arrested and handed over to The Hague”.
Tarfusser explained that the Russian president is at risk in the 123 countries that have ratified the Statute, as well as those who have not ratified it on the basis of the “principle of diplomatic courtesy.” “If I were Putin – I wouldn’t go to countries at the UN that voted to condemn it but didn’t ratify the Statute. And all this just undermines Putin and his image,” he says. The judge cites the case of former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, whom he followed while he was a judge in The Hague: “Over the years, he’s been confined to his country, they always followed him whenever he went out, and that’s what creates weakness within the country, neither his image nor his strength. strengthens”. Tarfusser says that even the Russian president “will have someone around him who doesn’t support him,” and explains: “It would certainly not be possible to send someone to Russia to arrest him and hand him over to The Hague, but there are a wide variety of possibilities”.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
