The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has announced an investigation into Russian President Vladimir Putin over possible war crimes in Ukraine. However, international criminal law has its limits.

The ICC is a permanent international criminal court based in The Hague. Its legal basis is the Rome Statute of 1998 and it is responsible for four core crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression.
The members of the court include 123 countries. Russia and Ukraine are omitted as they signed the statute but did not ratify it.

Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the ICC, has been investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine since 2014. At the beginning of last week, he announced that the inquiry should also include “all-new suspected crimes” committed in Ukraine.


With the investigation launched, it raises one question in particular: What is the likelihood of Putin ending up before the ICC?

Various legal issues will have to be addressed for this scenario to occur. For instance, the category of possible war crimes will have to be identified first.
“The ICC will have jurisdiction over three categories of crime in Ukraine – crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide.

“Based on the information we have seen coming out of Ukraine over the last week or so, there are reasonable grounds to believe that, at the very least, some of the charges we might see brought in this situation would include crimes against humanity – crimes such as murder committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population – and war crimes – these are serious violations of the law of armed conflict,” she said.

They will
No one will flog them
But it will smear diplomatic relations.

Putin is bigger than the entire ICC. Know this and know peace

... Em maybe when he becomes a regular civilian again in the next 35yrs









Law: you cannot try a sitting president!