Biden says ICC arrest warrant against Putin ‘justified’

The President of the United States, Joe Biden, declared, this Friday, that the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Russian President, Vladimir Putin, for war crimes, “is justified”.

Biden, who was speaking to the media at the White House, recalled that that judicial institution is not recognized by the United States, but considered that his decision to issue such a warrant nevertheless sends “a very strong signal”.

On Friday, the ICC issued an international arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes in Ukraine.

In a statement, the ICC informs that it has issued international warrants for the arrest of Putin and also of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Commissioner of the Russian Presidency for Children’s Rights.

The judicial body says it considers that “there are solid grounds to believe that each of the suspects is responsible for the war crime of illegally deporting citizens and the illegal transfer of population from the occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, to the detriment of [dos direitos] of Ukrainian children.”

“International law prohibits the transfer of civilians from the territories in which they live to other territories,” said the presiding judge of the ICC, Piotr Hofmanski, at a press conference.

“Children have special protection under the Geneva Convention […] and the ICC attaches great importance to the protection of victims, especially children”, he added, noting that the judges of the chamber decided to make the accusations public “in the interest of justice and to prevent future crimes from being committed”.

“This is an important moment in the justice process for the ICC: the judges have reviewed the information and evidence presented by the prosecutor and have determined that there are credible allegations against these persons for the alleged crimes.”

The execution of arrest warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova, Hofmanski said, now depends on the entire international community.