Each warrants are associated to children’s rights. (File)
The Hague:
The International Criminal Court on Friday announced it had issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian young children.
The Hague-primarily based ICC stated it had also issued a warrant against Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, on comparable charges.
Russia is not a member of the ICC. It was unclear how the ICC planned to enforce the warrant.
“Now, pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court issued warrants of arrest for two people in the context of the circumstance in Ukraine: Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Ms Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova,” the ICC stated in a statement.
Vladimir Putin “is allegedly accountable for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (young children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (young children) from occupied regions of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
The ICC stated the crimes dated from February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.
“There are affordable grounds to think that Mr Putin bears person criminal duty for the aforementioned crimes,” it stated.
President Putin was allegedly accountable each straight by committing the acts and for “failure to workout handle correctly more than civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or permitted for their commission.”
The arrest warrants are getting kept secret to guard victims and witnesses, it stated.
The ICC is a court of final resort for crimes that nations can’t or will not prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan launched an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine just days just after Russia’s invasion.
‘Spoils of war’
Karim Khan stated earlier this month just after a check out to Ukraine that the alleged abductions of young children “are getting investigated by my workplace as a priority”.
“Young children can’t be treated as the spoils of war,” he stated in a statement on March 7.
Posting a image of himself alongside empty cots, Mr Khan stated he had visited a care property for young children in southern Ukraine that was “empty, a outcome of alleged deportation of young children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation” or other occupied regions.
Mr Khan also confirmed that the ICC was investigating attacks on “vital civilian infrastructure” in Ukraine and that he had visited the web pages of many such strikes.
Along with Ukraine’s prosecutor basic “we underlined our collective commitment to make sure that such acts are completely investigated and these accountable for alleged international crimes held to account,” he added.
The ICC prosecutor added in the statement that he had a “sense that the momentum towards justice is accelerating.”
Karim Khan has previously described Ukraine as a “crime scene”, and has also visited the town of Bucha exactly where AFP journalists saw at least 20 bodies lying in a street.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC, but Kyiv has accepted the court’s jurisdiction and is operating with Khan’s workplace.
Russia denies allegations of war crimes by its troops. Professionals have stated it is unlikely it would ever hand more than any suspects.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is published from a syndicated feed.)
