The International Criminal Court has opened an investigation war in Ukraine as pressure to prosecute Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal increases.
The case against Putin could quickly converge as the list of alleged rapes grows: the bombing of a motherhoodthe bombing of civilian targets and an attack on a nuclear power plant that raised the specter of a nuclear disaster in the heart of Europe.
But a conviction could be elusive. The International Criminal Court, of which the United States is not a member, has a history of 10 convictions in two decades.
“The first way they can build it, and it may be enough in this case, is to look at the pattern of the attack,” Stephen Rapp, a former U.S. ambassador for war crimes, told the investigative correspondent. CBS News senior Catherine. Herridge.
Rapp, who has built cases against dictators and claimed responsibility for genocide, said Putin would be seen as “an international pariah” if there is a designation of war crimes against him.
“It also means you can’t travel anywhere, or any more peaks, because it would be endangered,” Rapp said.
Getting justice in court is not done quickly.
The court had to withdraw the arrest warrant for Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi after he was executed by his own people. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad remains in power for almost a decade after he allegedly used chemical weapons against Syrians.
Although the United States is not part of the International Criminal Court, a spokesman for the National Security Council told CBS News that the United States is already gathering evidence of alleged war crimes and human rights abuses that could be used in a trial. criminal.
US Embassy in Kyiv he called the attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant a “war crime”. But hours later, the White House re-marked the language.
“We have not drawn any conclusions, it is a legal review and a process that goes to the administration,” said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
Rapp said the bar is “very high” to show that war crimes have been committed, but “given the intensity of this campaign and the civilian destruction, I think it can be developed in a matter of weeks.”
Matthew Kroenig, who worked in Russia and nuclear portfolios for the intelligence community under the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations, told CBS News that there is a growing threat to the existence of small arms Russia’s performance known as tactical nuclear weapons.
“These are weapons that would be used not, for example, to attack Washington or New York, but to win a battle in the Ukrainian camp,” Kroenig said.
The use of tactical nuclear weapons against civilians would be “a first-rate war crime,” he said.
This week, intelligence officials warned of a Russian policy called “escalation to escalate,” which means the use of tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield to intimidate an opponent.
“I think before he lost the war, he would try to use nuclear weapons to try to pull victory out of the jaws of defeat,” Kroenig said of Putin. “I think the risk of a nuclear war is still low. But I think the risk is greater now than at any time we’ve seen in recent years.”
Add Comment