The International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for the russian president vladimir putin and five other high-ranking russian officials accused of war crimes in Ukraine will remain in force even if a general amnesty is declared, a clause that was included in Washington's draft peace treaty on Ukraine.
It was reported by the ICC, according to Reuters.
A separate resolution of the UN Security Council will be required to terminate the warrants issued by the court, they said.
"If there is a peace deal which then leads the Security Council to ask us to defer an investigation, then that's a matter - that's a political process for the Security Council. But as far as we're concerned...at the end of the day, it does not stop the way that justice is delivered," said Najat Shamim Khan, deputy prosecutor of the ICC, referring to the Rome Statute, which is fundamental to the organization.
In 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for putin for a number of international crimes, including the alleged deportation and abduction of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine. Along with the russian president, the arrest warrant was issued for the russian Children's Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova.
The ICC also put on the wanted list former russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov, who are suspected of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
As another deputy prosecutor, Mame Mandiaye Niang, noted, in addition to the aforementioned Security Council's rules of procedure, "we are obliged to follow our charter, which does not take into account some of these political arrangements."
In November, the media published the first version of the US 28-point peace proposal. One of the points of the plan stipulated that "all parties involved in the conflict will receive full amnesty for their actions during the war."
Last week, however, ABC News sources reported that the amnesty clause for russia for war crimes was removed from the reduced draft of the US peace agreement, which was revised during negotiations with the Ukrainian delegation in Geneva.
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