After the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued this Friday, March 17, an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is accused of deporting children in areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia, which would be a war crime, the world put a magnifying glass on the subject.
The Hague-based ICC also called for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, for the same reason.
It is known that Putin is highly unlikely to be arrested and the ICC also did not specify how it intends to execute the arrest warrants, since Russia is not a member of the court and declared the decision null and void.
However, This arrest warrant was issued after an investigation was carried out after the accusations from Ukraine, mainly, indicating that Russia had allegedly kidnapped Ukrainian children.
(Also: ICC issues arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.)
Prosecutor Karim Khan
Then, the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, who would be one of the main people behind this investigation, declared after his visit to Ukraine that the issue was “a priority investigation” because “children cannot be treated as spoils of war,” this after having been in a child care center in the south of the country that remained empty due to the alleged deportation of children to areas occupied by Moscow.
At the time of these deportations, the Ukrainian children were protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
According to Khan, “at least hundreds of children taken from orphanages and child care homes”, were adopted by the Russian territory.
“My office alleges that these acts, among others, demonstrate an intent to permanently remove these children from their own country. At the time of these deportations, Ukrainian children were protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention,” he noted.
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Khan was elected as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on February 12, 2021, at the nineteenth session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute in New York and was sworn in on June 16, 2021, as indicated a CPI document.
Karim is a lawyer with more than 25 years of experience, specializing in international criminal law and human rights. He has been a prosecutor, a lawyer for the victim and a defense lawyer in national criminal proceedings and in international courts, including the International Criminal Court.
He was also Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and served as the first special adviser and head of the United Nations investigation team on the issue of crimes committed by Daesh in Iraq between 2018 and 2021.
President Piotr Hofmanski
For his part, Judge Piotr Hofmański is president of the ICC and was in charge of announcing the arrest warrants against Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova.
The judges reviewed the information and evidence provided by the prosecutor’s office and ruled that there are credible charges against these individuals.
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“This is an important moment in the ICC’s administration of justice. The judges reviewed the information and evidence provided by the prosecutor’s office and ruled that there are credible charges against these individuals,” he said.
Judge Hofmański has held this position since March 11, 2015, for a period of 9 years until March 11, 2024. As indicated by the ICC, this Polish lawyer began his judicial career in 1994, as a judge of the Białystok Court of Appeal and then as a judge of the Criminal Chamber of the Polish Supreme Court, in 1996.
In addition, between 2004 and 2006 he was a member of the Committee of Experts on Transnational Justice and is the author of more than 300 books, commentaries and articles that touch on issues of criminal law, international cooperation in criminal matters and protection of human rights.
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