The International Criminal Court (ICC) accused member country Mongolia of not detaining Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit and referred the case for further proceedings.
According to the news agency ‘AFP’, the Russian president visited Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, in early September, despite the arrest warrant issued against him by the Hague-based International Criminal Court.
Vladimir Putin is accused of illegally deporting children during the 2022 Russian military incursion into Ukraine.
The ICC said in a statement that “Mongolia has failed to cooperate with the court by arresting Vladimir Putin on its territory and failing to bring him before the court.”
Under the ratification of the Rome Statute of the Court, all member states have an obligation to arrest wanted criminals.
According to ICC judges, all parties accepting state and judicial jurisdiction have to arrest persons wanted by the ICC, regardless of official position or nationality.
International Criminal Court judges, referring to the ICC’s supervisory body, said that due to Mongolia’s non-cooperation with the court, the chamber deemed it necessary to refer the matter to the Assembly of States Parties.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin in March 2023, stating that there is “substantial evidence that the Russian president has committed war crimes by illegally transferring Ukrainian children to Russia.”
Kyiv, on the other hand, says that thousands of Ukrainian children were forcibly deported from orphanages and other state institutions after Russian forces invaded large parts of the country in 2022.
However, Russia has maintained that it took the measures to keep some of the children away from war-torn areas for their safety.
Moscow had dismissed the warrant as meaningless, but it was the first visit by a Russian president to any of the ICC member states in 18 months after the warrant was issued.
After internal and external pressure to arrest South Africa at the BRICS meeting last year, the Russian President did not attend the BRICS meeting held in the ICC member country.
It should be noted that in the past, there have been no special results of non-arrest by ICC member countries in any such incident.
