“They were all powerful individuals, and yet they found themselves in courtrooms.”
This is the message of the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Karim Khan, regarding the warrant for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes in Ukraine, which was issued by that court on March 17th.
Among the powerful individuals who, “despite the contrary expectation of many, found themselves in custody”, in an interview with CNN on March 17th, Khan mentioned, among others, the former president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), Slobodan Milosevic.
“Both Milosevic and Putin were heads of state at the time of the accusation. In both cases, the accusation occurred while the armed conflict was still ongoing,” says Marko Milanovic, professor of international law at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom (UK).
He adds that both cases have “large political dimensions”, and the main difference is that Putin is “the ruler of a nuclear superpower”, while Milosevic was “the sovereign of a small country”.
Who has the obligation to arrest and extradite Putin?
Serbia, as a signatory to the Rome Statute, i.e. the treaty that established the ICC in the Hague, has undertaken to arrest and extradite persons sought by this court, if they are found on its territory.
Although it condemned the invasion of Ukraine through several resolutions in the United Nations (UN), Serbia is one of the few countries that refuse to join the policy of the European Union (EU) and impose sanctions on Russia.
On March 18th, the coalition partner of the ruling SNS, the Movement of Socialists, Aleksandar Vulin, called for the withholding of support for the ICC and the Rome Statute.
What are the differences between the accusations against Putin and Milosevic?
“An indictment was not brought against Putin, but a warrant was issued for his arrest. Before the ICC, a formal indictment is only confirmed if the defendant is arrested or surrendered,” says international law professor Marko Milanovic.
He also points to the difference in the scope of the accusations against Putin and the former president of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic.
“Milosevic was accused of crimes of a very large scale in three separate conflicts (in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), and Kosovo), while Putin is accused of a much more specific crime. This does not mean that the prosecutor will not have other charges against him in the future,” Milanovic adds.
The court suspects Putin of the war crime of deportation of the population (children) and their transfer from the occupied Ukrainian territory to Russia, Radio Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
