The International Criminal Court said on Friday it had issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin war crimes Because of his alleged involvement in Kidnapping of children from Ukraine.
Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of population (children) and illegal transfer of population (children) from occupied regions of Ukraine to the Russian Federation,” the court said in a statement.
It also issued an arrest warrant Friday for Maria Alexeyevna Lvova Belova, a commissioner for children’s rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations.
The ICC said its Pre-Trial Chamber found that there were “reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation and for the crime of unlawful transfer of population from the occupied regions of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, as a matter of prejudice”. of Ukrainian children.
Over the past year, the prosecution – as well as the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office – has collected evidence from numerous Qatari sources and individuals. Pamela Falk CBS News mentioned Earlier this week, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, was preparing to seek arrest warrants for individuals involved in the alleged kidnapping of Ukrainian children and the targeting of civilian infrastructure.
Earlier this month, Khan visited Ukraine for the fourth time. “I leave Ukraine feeling the momentum toward justice is accelerating,” he said he said in a statement.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to the arrest warrants with a statement that “The decisions of the International Criminal Court are meaningless for our country, including from a legal point of view. Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It does not bear any obligations under it.”
Lvova-Belova, who is accused of leading the child transportation program, has defended her conduct. “What I want to say: firstly, it is great that the world community has appreciated the work to help the children of our country, that we do not leave them in the war zone, that we take them out, that we create good conditions for them, surround them with loving and caring people.”
indictment put it in He will make the president of Russia international fugitiveDavid Martin of CBS News reports.
“It is not easy for a head of state to fear arrest when he sets foot in a European country or a North American country,” said Judge Richard Goldstone, the chief prosecutor for war crimes committed in Bosnia in the 1990s.
Ambassador Beth Van Schaack, the State Department official responsible for gathering evidence that could help prove Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine, told Martin, “He’s inevitably trapped now in Russia. He won’t be able to travel internationally, because it would be a risk.” To be arrested and brought to a court of law.”
The same applies to any other Russian accused of war crimes.
They will enjoy some impunity while they stay inside Russia, but what we’ve seen is that the perpetrators don’t stay inside their home countries. They want to go shopping in Europe or go on vacation somewhere, and they get determined, and then they’re done with it,” Van Schaack said. Activate law enforcement. And we have never been more integrated than we are now.”
Alex Whiting, a Harvard law professor who has worked in the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, explained to CBS News, “Issuing warrants is the first step to achieving accountability for war crimes — it indicates that there is evidence that war crimes have been committed and that The individuals identified are responsible and the persons charged will forever face the risk of arrest or surrender, particularly if they travel to one of the Court’s 123 member states.”
President Biden Calling Putin a “war criminal” called him He faces trialbut the United States is not part of International Criminal Courthaving not ratified the treaty establishing the institution.
CBS News investigated the allegations torture And war crimes committed in Ukraine by Russian forces since the beginning of the invasion. In August, a CBS News correspondent Chris Livesay spoke with Ukrainian children Who were taken to Russian lands against their will, and then rescued and returned to Ukraine.
A February report from the Human Research Laboratory at the Yale School of Public Health, sponsored by the US State Department, concluded that “all levels of the Russian government were involved” in the transfer of children from Ukraine.
“We’ve identified at least 43 facilities in this network of camps, institutions that hold Ukrainian children or are holding Ukrainian children. This network stretches from one end of Russia to the other,” the lab’s director, Nathaniel Raymond, said in a press briefing. February 14th.
“The camps’ primary goal appears to be political rehabilitation,” he said, but added that children from many of the camps were “later placed with Russian foster families or some form of adoption system.”
— Pamela Falk, David Martin and Camila Schick contributed to reporting.