The funniest headline I’ve ever read is, in the words of Ronnie Coleman, “[The ICC] is smoking crack, and ain’t in its right mind.” International Criminal Court, based in Hague (Netherlands), has issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin(current President of the Russian Federation) and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova(Commissioner for the President of the Russian Federation on the rights of children). Russian President Putin has been asserted as a wanted man as ICC has issued an arrest warrant. This declaration was made by the President of the International Criminal Court. The president of the International Criminal Court, Judge Mr Piotr hofmañski, made a statement as follows, “There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility( for the child abductions) for having committed such acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (and) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts”. It is alleged that Russian President Putin has direct involvement in the expulsion of folks and trafficking of children from disputed and occupied areas of Ukraine. While issuing an arrest warrant against Putin, they specifically mentioned Articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute(under which ICC itself has established). LEGAL QUERIES Firstly, Russia is not a country party to the ICC statute (Rome statute), and the court’s jurisdiction does not extend to the territory of Russia, nor the territory of the US (Withdrawn), China, and India (as an example). Moreover, the US has agreements with several countries that oblige them not to extradite US citizens to the ICC; if this happens, the US withdraws support from the country party to the agreement. what would be the Legal effect of such an arrest warrant? Secondly, I find it rather difficult to perceive the absence of a real working mechanism for implementing a large number of international norms, not only in the field of international criminal law. The ICC was created only from a political point of view to bring “convenient” candidates to justice. The ICC does not hold trials without the presence of the accused, and neither Russia nor Ukraine has ratified the Rome Statute.
The court does not have its structures for search and seizure, they can only send a request to the country where the accused is or may be located. The Russian law enforcement authorities will not react in any way. But countries that have ratified the Rome Statute (there are 123) could theoretically detain Putin at the request of the ICC.
But can we imagine the head of a nuclear-weapon state being held somewhere and by someone? It is very unlikely. It is, let’s say, the same as holding the former U.S. administration (Clinton’s administration) criminally responsible. The free world still awaits condemnation of the United States for their slaughter of innocents in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which had caused the death of thousands of civilians by an atomic bomb, that was not a war crime, also? Lastly, Who will tie a bell around the cat’s neck? Who dares to even approach him(Putin)?
