FILE PHOTO: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin attends a forum of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) in Moscow, Russia, March 16, 2023. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via REUTERS
AMSTERDAM — The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday issued arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Russian commissioner for children’s rights.
Here are some details of the warrants:
ACCUSATIONS
Both are accused of being responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of people, in particular children, and their unlawful transfer from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
GROUNDS
The ICC said it sees reasonable grounds to believe that Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the crimes, either for committing them directly, jointly with others and/or through others.
It also said he failed to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts or had allowed their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control, pursuant to superior responsibility.
The court also said it sees reasonable grounds to believe that Lvova-Belova bears individual criminal responsibility for the crimes, for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others.
RANGE
The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory at least from February 24, 2022, the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
READ: February 24, 2022: the day Russia invaded Ukraine
PERSONAL DETAILS
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born on Octber 7, 1952.
Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova was born on October 25, 1984.
JURISDICTION
Russia and Ukraine are not member states of the ICC, and Moscow has repeatedly said it does not recognize its jurisdiction. But a referral to the ICC in 2015 by Ukraine gives the court jurisdiction over war crimes committed on its territory, even if committed by Russian nationals or those of other non-member states.
MEANING
The arrest warrant obliges member states to arrest Putin or Lvova-Belova if he were to travel to their country. The ICC, however, has no own police force or other ways to enforce arrests.
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