Putin can now be detained in any of 123 member states of ICC – expert
All member states of the International Criminal Court (ICC) are now legally bound to detain and bring to court Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, now deemed a suspect. Source: Russian BBC service citing Kevin Jon Heller, professor of the international law of the University of Copenhagen Quote: "This is an incredibly important event.
Incumbent head of state does not get accused by the international court on a daily basis. But, of course, the likelihood of Putin being detained in the near future is quite low. From a legal point of view, any ICC member state is obliged to fulfil this decision.
In case Putin arrives on the territory of this country, it must arrest him and bring him to court. But in reality states do not often follow this procedure.
For instance, serious accusations were made against the President of Sudan, and he visited several ICC member states after that but was not arrested in any. So, an arrest order does not guarantee that Putin will be handed over to the ICC.
Yet from the legal point of view these countries are obliged to do it." Details: The ICC jurisdiction is valid in the countries that ratified the Rome Statute. Ukraine is not a Rome Statute participant.
Yet Ukraine gave the ICC permission to investigate crimes on its territory. The Roman Statute was ratified by 123 countries, including the countries of South America and nearly a half of the countries of Africa, therefore they will have to adhere to the issued orders by the ICC. Among the countries that did not ratify the statute are China, India, Belarus, Turkiye and Kazakhstan.
Like the US, Russia signed the statute but then revoked its signature.
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Pavel Chikov, Head of the International Human Rights Group Agora, stated that Putin became the sixth head of state to come under international criminal investigation. Quote: "The first head of state in history to be prosecuted by the ICC was Laurent Gbagbo, fourth President of Cote d'Ivoire, in 2011.
He was accused of crimes against humanity, committed during an armed conflict in the country in 2010-2011. In eight years, in 2019, Gbagbo was acquitted. Uhuru Kenyatta, to-be President of Kenya, was accused by ICC of committing crimes against humanity during the political crisis in Kenya in 2007-2008.
In 2014, these accusations were revoked due to the absence of evidence. Omar al-Bashir, seventh President of Sudan, is in custody in Sudan and is waiting to be handed over to The Hague. The ICC accuses him of organising and carrying out a genocide.
The first convicted head of state was Charles Tayor, 22nd President of Liberia. He was prosecuted by the Special Court concerning Sierra-Leone. The court found him guilty of assisting in and inciting war crimes and of complicity in crimes against humanity.
On 30 May 2012, he was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Slobodan Milosevic, former Serbian President, died in the UN prison in The Hague before being sentenced. He was prosecuted by the predecessor of the ICC - Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia."
Background:
- On 17 March, the Chamber of Pre-trial Claims of the II International Criminal Court issued an arrest order for Russia's President Vladimir Putin in connection with the situation in Ukraine.
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