People enter the International Criminal Court, 20 June 2006 in the Hague. (Photo credit should read JUAN VRIJDAG/AFP via Getty Images)
OAN Roy Francis
UPDATED 9:01 AM – Friday, March 17, 2023
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.
A judge with the ICC issued an arrest warrant against the Russian president accusing him of being responsible for war crimes that have been committed in Ukraine. The alleged crimes include abductions of children from Ukraine, and the unlawful transfer of people from Ukrainian territory to the Russian federation.
The court released a statement about the alleged crimes which said that Putin is “allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
A second arrest warrant was issued for the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, Maria Aleskseyevna, for similar crimes as Putin.
The ICC also said that the Pre-Trial Chamber II found “that there are reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children.”
The arrest warrants are issued a day after a United Nations investigation had found that Russian attacks against civilians in Ukraine “including systematic torture and killing in occupied regions” amount to war crimes.
The investigation also found that crimes committed in the region include deporting “Ukrainian children who were prevented from reuniting with their families, a ‘filtration’ system aimed at singling out Ukrainians for detention, and torture and inhumane detention conditions.”
The United Nations said that the crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine could potentially amount to crimes against humanity.
The ICC says the alleged crimes that were committed in Ukraine began on February 24th, 2022, the day that Putin launched his invasion into Ukraine.
Moscow has repeatedly denied any allegation of war crimes being committed.
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