debut: 3/2/03
18,223 runs
Mongolia: Putin must be arrested and surrendered to the International Criminal Court
Responding to reports that Vladimir Putin plans to visit Mongolia on 3 September, Altantuya Batdorj, Executive Director of Amnesty International Mongolia, said:
“If he travels, Mongolia’s international legal obligations are clear as a member state of the International Criminal Court (ICC). They must arrest President Putin and hand him over to the ICC to face charges of war crimes.”
“President Putin is a fugitive from justice. Any trip to an ICC member state that does not end in arrest will encourage President Putin’s current course of action and must be seen as part of a strategic effort to undermine the ICC’s work to prosecute suspected war criminals. If the Mongolian authorities fail to arrest him, they will have done nothing but give succour to a man who is accused by the ICC of being responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of children, but is also potentially responsible for a plethora of other war crimes and crimes against humanity in a conflict that has shattered the lives of millions and destroyed the hopes and aspirations of a generation.