The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
In a statement, the ICC said that the Russian President, Putin allegedly extradited and transferred children illegally from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia, according to a report by Al Jazeera.
The Hague-based court said, “There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Putin bears individual criminal responsibility.”
On child abductions, the ICC said, “for having committed the 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.”
The ICC, also issued an arrest warrant on similar allegations for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia's commissioner for children’s rights in the office of the Russian President.
Russia has denied committing atrocities since it invaded Ukraine in February last year, dismissing the warrant as meaningless and describing the move by ICC as null and void.
Reacting to the ICC announcement, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on her Telegram channel, “The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view.
“Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it.”
However, ICC President Piotr Hofmanski told Al Jazeera it was “completely irrelevant” that Russia had not ratified the Rome Statute.
Politics and Opinion.
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