“It is important that it is approved and enters into force as soon as possible the code of international crimes“. This was stated to beraking latest news by Maurizio Block, military attorney general at the Court of Cassation, the day after the indictment and arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, explaining that in the absence of that code, the Italian judicial authority could have to deal with a vulnerability and having problems in deciding, for example, a possible surrender of the Russian president if he were arrested in our country.
“Many people – explains Block – wonder whether or not Italy has the jurisdiction to carry out the execution of an arrest warrant for Putin if he comes to Italy. Since our country has ratified the Rome Statute, establishing the Court international criminal law and issued a subsequent implementing law in 2012, must execute a possible arrest warrant.And although Putin has personal immunity, as a foreign head of state, it is also true that the obligation that Italy has assumed to execute the orders of the International Criminal Court as ius cogens. If therefore Italy could undoubtedly carry out such an arrest, “problems could arise when the Court of Appeal of Rome, competent on the merits, were to decide the existence of the conditions for hand it over to the International Criminal Court: in this case it would have to evaluate whether the crimes for which Putin is indicted are foreseen in our legal system. In this case the hypothesis of crime should be that of deportation of children, which in our legal system is not specifically provided for, and since Italy has not yet approved the code of crimes against humanity, the Rome court of appeal could have criticality in recognizing, in our legal system, a hypothesis of crime equal to the one for which the arrest was requested. Italy must therefore approve the code of international crimes against humanity as soon as possible to avoid finding itself in this type of problem with consequent falls in its image at an international level”.