Child thieves

On March 17, 2023, the Preliminary Chamber of the International Criminal Court (a member of which is the Italian judge Rosario Salvatore Aitala) issued arrest warrants for two people "in the context of the situation in Ukraine". They are Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, president of the Russian Federation, and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, commissioner for children's rights in the office of the president of the Russian Federation.

The arrest warrants were issued on the basis of a request from the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court itself, and the Pre-trial Chamber considered that there were reasonable grounds to believe that each of the two "suspects" had responsibility for the war crimes of "illegal deportation of population (children)" and "illegal transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, to the detriment of Ukrainian children".
According to these court documents, the crimes were allegedly committed in the territory occupied by Russian troops "at least since February 24, 2022". In particular, there would be reasonable grounds to believe that Putin is responsible for committing these crimes directly, with and/or through others, and for failing to exercise adequate control over his subordinates, civilian and military, who perpetrated these criminal acts. , or permitted their commission, and which were under his effective authority and control, according to the principle of "superior responsibility".

As for Ms. Lvova-Belova, the indictment is for her criminal liability for committing those crimes directly, jointly with others, and/or through others.
These formulations of the arrest warrants reflect the dictates of precise provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, adopted on 17 July 2023, and which entered into force on 1 July 2002. Neither Russia (the aggressor State) nor Ukraine ( attacked) ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Ukraine, however, has since 2014-2015 declared that it accepts the jurisdiction of the Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In the terrible war unleashed by President Putin on February 24, 2022, many, too many crimes were committed (and continue to be committed). Several independent international commissions and bodies of international bodies have produced reports which are the result of serious and careful investigations. These reports have highlighted the commission of various categories of crimes, such as indiscriminate attacks that have produced numerous victims among the civilian population, the destruction of hospitals, schools and homes, of cultural and religious assets, rapes and sexual violence. Already from the first weeks of the war, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, the British Karim Khan, began an intense investigative activity, with the collection of evidence, the search for witnesses. This commitment is aimed at laying the foundations for a future holding of trials against those responsible for the commission of these crimes.

In the mare magnum of the thousands of crimes that seem to have been perpetrated, the limited scope of those covered by the two arrest warrants is striking. In fact, one would instinctively think that the terrible destruction, the unacceptable killings of civilians, the rapes could have been at the head of the long list of classification of crimes and the search for those responsible. Instead, the Court begins with a less blatant case. Why? The two arrest warrants are not accompanied by documents explaining the reasons in detail, to protect the subjects involved, primarily victims, family members and witnesses. We can, however, imagine that the prosecutor found sufficiently solid evidence to trace the chain of responsibility from the perpetrators of these war crimes back to the political summit, in the Kremlin. According to what has been reported, there are regulatory and administrative acts that led to the organization and execution of crimes, and these acts emanate directly from the presidency of the Russian Federation. Hundreds of Ukrainian children were allegedly taken from orphanages or "family homes" and deported to Russia, with the intention of permanently removing them from their country, in serious violation of the IV Geneva Convention on the protection of the civilian population in armed conflicts .

These acts are therefore war crimes, and entail the international criminal responsibility of those who commit them and of those who order them to be committed. Responsibility is all the more serious when it leads to the top of state power. The International Criminal Court does not have jurisdiction over the liability of States, but it does have jurisdiction over individuals, natural persons who have directly committed crimes or who have ordered them. The Court cannot try defendants in absentia, and it is highly unlikely that Putin and his accomplice will be arrested and taken to The Hague.

The arrest warrants, however, are a significant step in the now consolidated affirmation of international criminal law, which carries with it a strong signal: war crimes and crimes against humanity must not go unpunished , and top politicians are not covered by the general rule of immunity.


Edoardo Greppi
NP June / July 2023