The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced on Tuesday that it had issued arrest warrants against Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov and former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
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They are both accused of being responsible for the war crimes of directing attacks against civilian objects and causing excessive accidental harm to civilians, as well as the crime against humanity of “inhumane acts”, it said. the ICC in a press release.
The ICC, which sits in The Hague, considers “that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the two suspects bear responsibility for missile strikes carried out by the Russian armed forces against Ukrainian electrical infrastructure between at least October 10, 2022 and at least March 9, 2023.
It further considers “that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the alleged strikes were directed against civilian objects and that, for installations which could have been considered military objectives at the time of the events, incidental civilian damage expected would have been clearly excessive in relation to the expected military advantage.
The court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March last year, a move rejected by Moscow.
In response, Russia issued its own arrest warrant for the ICC president.
This court does not have its own police force to execute arrest warrants. It relies on the judicial systems of its 124 member states to carry them out.
In theory, anyone who is the subject of an arrest warrant should be arrested if they travel to the territory of a Member State.
Mr Putin has traveled abroad, including to Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – which are not members of the ICC. However, he missed a BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) meeting in South Africa, which theoretically would have been forced to carry out the mandate.
