‘He is a fugitive criminal’
Vladimir Putin is visiting Mongolia and this Central Asian country is a member of the ICC (International Criminal Court). Consequently, it is therefore obliged to arrest him under an ICC arrest warrant issued in March. But it does not look like this is going to happen. Even though Mongolia has signed and ratified the Rome Statute to become a member of the ICC. According to that Statute, Mongolia must arrest anyone entering its territory against whom an ICC warrant has been issued. But the Russian leader's welcome suggests that it will not arrest him. On the contrary, Putin even received a military honour guard at the airport. And that is a thorn in the side of a lot of critics.
According to a Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman, Mongolia is now complicit in Putin's war crimes. ‘After all, the country has allowed an indicted criminal to escape punishment,’ it sounds.
For her part, Altantuya Batdorj, director of Amnesty International Mongolia, even called Putin ‘a fugitive criminal’. According to Batdorj, he will continue to flout international law. ‘It is part of a strategic attempt to undermine the work of the ICC,’ she says.
(SR for Tagtik/Source: The Guardian - Euronews/Illustration: Pixabay)