“Putin could be arrested leaving Russia and sentenced to life imprisonment”

Anabela Alves, a Portuguese lawyer who worked for the International Criminal Court (ICC), believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin could be arrested if he leaves Russia, and risks being sentenced to life imprisonment.

In statements to RenaissanceAnabela Alves comments on the arrest warrant announced this Friday by the ICC against Vladimir Putin, for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

“It cannot be said that he will be arrested immediately, but the arrest warrant is public. If President Putin leaves Russia and moves to a neighboring country, any country has the obligation to arrest the President and take the necessary steps with the teams on the ground to be taken to The Hague”, explains the lawyer.

The Portuguese jurist who worked at the International Criminal Court believes that Putin’s case will be different from that of the former President of Sudan, because “there was no international movement of support” against Omar al-Bashir.

“This time will clearly be different, because for the first time since World War II we see a solidarity of various legal and justice systems, of various prosecutors, finance and expertise, to ensure that these crimes do not go unpunished. There will be a completely different movement, cooperation, to ensure the arrest of those most responsible for this war”, says Anabela Alves.

If Vladimir Putin is arrested, he will be taken to The Hague and he will follow the normal procedural rules, namely he will learn about the crimes he is accused of.

Anabela Alves considers that the Russian President could be sentenced “to a life sentence”, if war crimes, against humanity, evidence of genocide, forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia are proven.

Alongside Putin, the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, also issued an international arrest warrant against the Russian Presidency’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova.

At issue is the illegal deportation of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.