03/20/2023 11:13 (act. 03/20/2023 11:20)
There is no statute of limitations for war crimes ©APA/AFP
According to Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Russian President Vladimir Putin will remain valid even after the end of the Russian war against Ukraine. “There is no statute of limitations on war crimes,” Khan told BBC Radio 4 on Monday, one of the tenets of the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal after World War Two.
“Individuals – wherever they are in the world – need to recognize that there is law and with authority comes responsibility,” said the Briton. The arrest warrants would jail Putin and Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova for life for the rest of their lives, Khan stressed. “Unless they face the independent judges of the court, and the judges decide on the merits of filing a case – but otherwise: absolutely, yes,” he said when asked.
Russia sees the arrest warrant against Putin as “clear hostility”. This is directed against Russia and against Putin personally, spokesman for the Presidential Office in Moscow, Dmitri Peskov, said on Monday. However, Russia reacted “calmly” and continued its work.
China has asked the International Criminal Court to proceed with caution. The Hague criminal court must “take an objective and fair position” and respect the immunity of heads of state under international law, said a spokesman for Beijing’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Criminal Court must “exercise its powers with prudence and in accordance with the law”. Politicization and double standards must be avoided. China is considered a close ally of Russia.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Lvowa-Belowa on Friday at Khan’s request for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. They are allegedly responsible for the deportation of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories to Russia. Above all, arrest warrants have symbolic significance, and a trial currently seems out of the question.
British lawyer Geoffey Nice, chief prosecutor of former Serbian head of state Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague, said the arrest warrant labeled Putin a wanted criminal. “The tag will remain for life unless he is tried and acquitted or, almost inconceivable, the International Criminal Court withdraws the warrant,” Nice told Sky News. The arrest warrant is a “very, very important and very welcome step”.