Blinken pointed out that since America is not a member of the ICC, he does not want to deal with that hypothesis.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken refused today to give a definitive answer to the question of whether US authorities will arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin at the request of the International Criminal Court if he comes to the US.
“I can’t speak in advance because obviously I have to look at the laws and those rules. We’re not actually a party to the International Criminal Court. So I don’t want to deal with that hypothesis,” Blinken said at a US Senate conference.
Blinken, however, pointed out that every member state of the ICC should fulfill their obligations and arrest Putin in case he comes to their territory. Although the US is not a member of the ICC, US President Joe Biden said on Friday that it is Putin apparently committed war crimes, adding that the ICC order was justified.
Moscow has repeatedly rejected accusations that its forces committed atrocities during the year-long invasion of its neighbor, with the Kremlin calling the ruling “illegal”.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine is a member of the ICC, although Kiev has granted jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed on its territory. The tribunal has no police force of its own and relies on arrests by member states.
On Friday, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin and the Russian President’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lavova-Belova, citing “illegal transfer of population (children) from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.” The Kremlin announced that Russia is not a party to the ICC and that the court’s decision for that country is legally null and void.
(WORLD)