Theoretically, Putin could be processed for war crimes committed in Ukraine? The answer is certainly yes, the feasibility of the matter is much more difficult. Most Western leaders want his head, Biden has been clear on the issue, but for the Tsar to be in the dock some things have to come together. First, a coup or regime change is required, with the Russian President outside the Kremlin. Interesting scenarios could open up at this point.
The knots to untie
It all depends advise The UN Security Ministry, which could set up a special tribunal with Putin and his army, called to respond to the crimes in Ukraine with overwhelming evidence of the horrors they committed in Bucha, a town on the outskirts of Kyiv . The same scenario could open up thanks CPU, namely the International Criminal Court, the first and only permanent international court to prosecute people for crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression. The Rome Statute, which came into force on July 1, 2002, does not provide for judgments in absentia, the requirement that the person who is obliged to appear before the judge examining a case concerning him does not do so. As Corriere reports, its Attorney General Karim Khan is collecting evidence of war crimes (there are hundreds of them) in cooperation with the European Union.
“Two Ways to Arrest Him”
“An arrest warrant capture for Putin, it could arrive by the end of the year,” former International Criminal Court judge Cuno Tarfusser told the daily. There are two ways that Putin could be arrested: the first is by setting foot in either one 123 CPIsupporting states (US and Ukraine not included) obliged but not obliged to arrest the wanted person or, as mentioned above, if the tsar was killed by his followers and the new Russian government .decided that it was better to deliver it to the CPI than to process it at home”.
“Only with a regime change”
For now, the most viable (but most difficult) hypothesis is the change from regime in Russia: According to Marco Pedrazzi, professor of international law at the State University of Milan, this is the only way Putin can end up in court. “And it is not possible to hold a trial in absentia before the International Court of Justice: the accused must always be present,” he told Messenger. Couldn’t the prosecutor then issue an arrest warrant? Yes, but he must obtain approval from the Court’s PreTrial Chamber. “Political factors also come into play here, not just legal ones explains Pedrazzi the court was asked to act by 41 states, including Italy. Russia and Ukraine have not signed the statute, but Kyiv has accepted its jurisdiction since November 2013. The court has a complementary role to the national judiciary.
Russian defense for Putin
In his homeland he is cheered and despite disagreement, his environment will not bring him down so easily. As already mentioned, Russia is not part of the International Court of Justice: this means that there will be no cooperation and “will try sabotage how can the activity of the court. It does not provide documents, does not admit anyone into its territory, and does not assist in the arrest of wanted persons. Unless there is a regime change, emphasizes the law professor, citing the example of the most important figure, former Sudanese President Omar alBashir, who was never extradited to the authorities despite the regime change in 2019. In the meantime, however, the investigators are working on it. “We are working on collecting as much evidence as possible. The public prosecutor went to Ukraine, witnesses are being questioned at the trial and all the documents are being evaluated. “We are talking about murders, exterminations, rapes and torture. For a crime against humanity to exist, even a single murder must have been committed with the knowledge that it was part of a largescale or systematic attack on a civilian population,” Pedrazzi told the Roman newspaper.
These illustrious precedents
In the not too distant past we remember the end of Gaddafi, who was killed as soon as he was captured, and Saddam Hussein, who was hanged in Baghdad after a trial created ad hoc by the United States. Romanian Nicolae Ceaucescu was accused of genocide within hours of Christmas 1989 and found guilty. But perhaps the most apt comparison is with Serbia, which is on Putin’s side: in 2021, former President Slobodan Milosevic was sent to the Aia and found dead during the days of the negotiations. He also faces charges of war crimes and genocide for Radovan Karadzic, the architect of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, who is currently serving life in a British prison.