War crimes arrest warrants issued for top Russian officials | BBC News

War crimes arrest warrants issued for top Russian officials | BBC News

onto other news and the international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for the former Russian defense minister Sergey shyu and the top Russian general Valeri gisou for alleged crimes committed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine uh Valeri giso is currently the commander of all Russian forces in Ukraine and considered one of the most powerful men in Russia well shyu was removed from his role as defense minister last month and appointed the Secretary of Russia’s security Council that has already described the icc’s decision as being part of a hybrid war against Moscow now the international criminal courts move expands the list of wanted Kremlin officials to four last year it issued arrest warrants for President Putin and also his children’s Ombudsman uh Maria Lova Bova uh Ukraine said the decision had helped to secure the return of unlawfully deported children well joining me now is the human rights lawyer uh Alexandra matvichuk in ke she chairs the center for civil liberties the non-government organization which jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 thank you very much for being on the program uh first of all is this a a political statement or more than that no it’s not political statement it’s a legal decision which have a very important practical results H and what is the practical result uh the international crimes have no statute of limitations it means from the long-term perspective that we know from the history of humankind that authoritarian regime collapsed and the leaders and top political and military officials who see themselves Untouchable appeared under the court the last example which we can mention it’s milosevich Serbia didn’t want to transfer milosevich to the h but Serbia did and this decision is also important from the shortterm perspective because unfortunately even in val developed democracies there were politicians who want to return to business as usual with Russia and now it’s become more and more complicated and what does this mean in Practical terms for the two men in terms of any potential ability to uh arrest them it clearly restricts their movements doesn’t it a Justice have a power to change strategic reality in present it’s something which people forget because they think that Justice is important for the past or just for the future I documented war crimes for 10 years I know that Russians have never been punished for crimes that they committed in Chia mova Georgia Mali Libya Syria other countries of the world these decisions show that probably they will be accountable and this will have sent ad doubt to even of part of Russian start to have this doubt that they will be responsible it will return in cooling effect to the brutality of human rights violations and this means because we speak about large scale War we can save thousands thousands and thousands of lives Alexandra matvichuk thank you very much for your time today

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s former defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the chief of general staff, Valery Gerasimov.

The ICC judges said the two men were suspected of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war in Ukraine.

The court said there were grounds to believe that Mr Shoigu and Mr Gerasimov bore individual criminal responsibility for attacks on civilian targets between October 2022 and March 2023.

Russia’s Security Council said the ICC’s arrest warrant against Mr Shoigu was “insignificant” and part of a hybrid war against Moscow.

Subscribe here: http://bit.ly/1rbfUog

For more news, analysis and features visit: www.bbc.com/news

#Ukraine #Russia #BBCNews