The Guardian: International Criminal Court May Bring New Charges Against Putin

Details.

Human rights lawyers working with Ukraine's prosecutor's office are preparing a war crimes dossier to submit to the International Criminal Court (ICC), accusing Russia of deliberately causing starvation in the course of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Guardian reports on the matter.

"The aim is to document cases in which Russian invaders used starvation as a weapon of war, providing evidence for the ICC to launch the first prosecution of the kind to bring charges against Russian president Vladimir Putin," the report said.

Yusuf Khan, a senior lawyer at law firm Global Rights Compliance (GRC), said the turning of food into weapons took place in three stages: first Ukrainian cities were besieged and food supplies were reduced, then some food and water supplies were destroyed, particularly through attacks.

The third stage, Khan said, was Russia's attempts to prevent or restrict Ukrainian food exports.

"Putin may be responsible for committing acts directly, in conjunction with and/or through others," the lawyer said.

"GRC will work with Ukrainian prosecutors until the end of next year to compile the dossier. The intention is to file a petition under Article 15 of the Rome Statute, which will allow third parties to send information about possible war crimes to the ICC prosecutor," The Guardian added.

We remind, in March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. Russia denies involvement in war crimes or the forcible removal of Ukrainian children. Putin has repeatedly skipped international meetings and did not attend the G20 in New Delhi, sending Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov there.

The decision by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, as well as Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's children's ombudsman in the case of the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children was made on the basis of available evidence. The ICC Prosecutor emphasised that their guiding principle was not politics or emotion, but evidence, and it was this evidence that prompted them to take concrete steps.