Q: Isn’t bombing a train station in Ukraine, where people were there to evacuate, a war crime? If Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be arrested, can he at least be tried in absentia? There are so many atrocities being committed in Ukraine.
K.P., Hawthorne
A: A war crime is an action carried out during the conduct of a war that violates accepted international rules of war. The circumstances you mention are deemed by many to constitute a war crime, but not the only actions being addressed that may lead (or which have already led) to a charge of war crimes against the Russian president. As to a trial in absentia, this means the person who is the focus of the charges is not physically present at the proceedings.
The International Criminal Court, in March of this year, issued an arrest warrant for Putin. The charges focus not on the bombing you identify, but on the thousands of Ukrainian children allegedly kidnapped and transported into Russia. Recent reports suggest Russia may be returning some of the children, possibly to try to avoid the limitations on Putin traveling to various places where he may now otherwise be arrested.
Russia, however, does not recognize the ICC, and the United States is not a party to the Rome Statute, which founded the ICC. Bottom line, it is not likely Putiin will be arrested, at least while he remains in power. The ICC does not have its own police force, and thus relies on countries to effectuate its arrest warrants. Research further indicates the ICC does not try defendants in absentia, since its rules expressly state that an accused suspect shall be present during trial. But in 2005, a United Nations-backed tribunal convicted three men in absentia for the assassination of Lebanese politician Rafik Hariri. And in 2022, a Dutch court convicted three men in absentia for the notorious 2014 downing of a Malaysian Airlines flight over eastern Ukraine.
As such, there are options to try Putin, whether in absentia or not. A fair…
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