Travel curbs, restrictions on assembly world leaders: Here’s what ICC arrest warrant imply for Russia’s Putin

The ICC accuses Putin of accountability for the struggle crime of deporting Ukrainian kids – not less than a whole bunch, presumably extra – to Russia.

New Delhi,UPDATED: Mar 19, 2023 14:00 IST

Russian President Vladimir Putin, accompanied by Governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhayev, visits a kids’s arts and aesthetic centre in Sevastopol, Crimea March 18, 2023 (Photo: Reuters/File)

By Reuters: Vladimir Putin might not see the within of a cell in The Hague any time quickly, however his struggle crimes arrest warrant might harm his capacity to journey freely and meet different world leaders, who might really feel much less inclined to talk to a needed man.

Putin is simply the third head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court whereas nonetheless in energy. Following is a have a look at what the results may very well be for the Kremlin chief.

WHAT IS THE CASE?

The ICC accuses Putin of accountability for the struggle crime of deporting Ukrainian kids – not less than a whole bunch, presumably extra – to Russia.

The Kremlin was fast to dismiss the allegations and the Russian international minister stated ICC selections “have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view.”

TRAVEL ABROAD

The ICC’s 123 member states are obliged to detain and switch Putin if he units foot on their territory. Russia isn’t a member and neither are China, the United States or India, which is internet hosting a summit later this 12 months of leaders of the G20 group of massive economies, which incorporates Russia.

The world’s everlasting struggle crimes court docket was created by the Rome Statute, a treaty ratified by all of the EU states, in addition to Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland, 33 African international locations and 19 nations within the South Pacific.

Russia signed the Rome Statute in 2000, however withdrew its backing in 2016, after the ICC categorised Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula as an armed battle.

“Putin is not stupid. He’s not going to travel abroad to a country where he might be arrested,” stated assistant professor of historical past on the Utrecht University Iva Vukusic.

“He is not going to be able to travel pretty much anywhere else beyond the countries that are either clearly allies or at least somewhat aligned (with) Russia,” Vukusic stated.

ALSO READ | Russia reacts to International Criminal Court warrants, calls it ‘outrageous and unacceptable’

ICC’S PAST EXPERIENCE

Sudan’s former president Omar al-Bashir and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi are the one different leaders to have been indicted by the ICC whereas serving as head of state. Charges towards Gaddafi had been terminated after he was overthrown and killed in 2011.

Bashir, indicted in 2009 for genocide in Darfur, remained in workplace for one more decade till being toppled in a coup. He has since been prosecuted in Sudan for different crimes however has not been handed to the ICC.

While in workplace, he travelled to a lot of Arab and African international locations, together with ICC member states Chad, Djibouti, Jordan, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, and Uganda, which declined to detain him. The court docket rebuked these international locations or referred them to the U.N. Security Council for non-compliance.

The ICC has tried one former head of state after he left workplace: former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, who was acquitted of all costs in 2019 after a three-year trial.

Kenya’s President William Ruto and his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta had been each charged by the ICC earlier than they had been elected. The costs towards each males have since been dropped. Kenyatta is the one chief to have appeared earlier than the ICC whereas nonetheless serving in workplace.

ALSO READ | International Criminal Court points arrest warrant for Putin for Russia’s struggle in Ukraine

OTHER COURTS

Apart from the ICC, a number of former leaders have been tried by different worldwide courts. Among notable circumstances:

Slobodan Milosevic, former president of Serbia and Yugoslavia, grew to become the primary former head of state to seem earlier than a global tribunal since World War Two when he was tried at a U.N. court docket for alleged crimes through the Nineties Balkan wars. He died in custody in 2006 earlier than a verdict was reached.

Liberian former chief Charles Taylor was discovered responsible of struggle crimes in 2012 by the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague, the primary former head of state to be convicted of struggle crimes by a global court docket for the reason that Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders after World War Two.

Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, one among Milosevic’s adversaries within the Nineties Balkan wars, left workplace after being indicted for struggle crimes by the Kosovo struggle crimes tribunal in The Hague. He is because of go on trial subsequent month.

ALSO READ | How ICC court docket warrant for Russia might have an effect on Xi Jinping-Putin assembly

Published On:

Mar 19, 2023