Moscow: The International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted Vladimir Putin two days ago and issued an arrest warrant against him for war crimes.
To put things in perspective, Putin is only the third head of state to be indicted by ICC, headquartered in The Hague in Netherlands, while still in power.
Will ICC’s indictment actually lead to Putin’s arrest?
The Russian President may not be in a cell in The Hague any time soon, but the war crimes arrest warrant could have other serious ramifications.
Any plans to travel abroad freely and meet other world leaders are likely to be affected.
The ICC’s 123 member states are obliged to detain and transfer Putin if he sets foot on their territory.
The world’s war crimes court was created through the Rome Statute, a treaty ratified by all EU states, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland, 33 African countries and 19 South Pacific nations.
Interestingly, Russia is not a member of ICC, and neither are China, the United States or India.
Case Against Putin
ICC gas accused Putin of being responsible for the war crime of deporting Ukrainian children – hundreds of them, possibly more — to Russia.
Moscow dismissed ICC’s allegations, with the Russian foreign minister saying that ICC decisions “have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view.”
“Putin is not stupid. 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,” said Iva Vukusic, Utrecht University’s assistant professor of history.
Previous Indicted Heads Of State
Before Putin, other world leaders to be indicted by ICC while serving as head of state were Sudan’s former President Omar al-Bashir and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.
Charges against Gaddafi were withdrawn after he was overthrown and killed in 2011.
Bashir, who was indicted in 2009 for genocide in Darfur, remained in office for nearly a decade until he was toppled in a coup. He has been prosecuted in Sudan for other crimes, but not handed over to the ICC.
Bashir did travel to several ICC member states, which didn’t detain him. ICC rebuked those countries or referred them to the UN Security Council for non-compliance.
