ICC threatens Mongolia with consequences for refusing to co-operate on Putin's arrest

Mongolia, as a state party to the Rome Statute, is obliged to arrest Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, who was issued an arrest warrant for his involvement in the abduction of Ukrainian children. This was stated by the Speaker of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Fadi el-Abdallah, writes the BBC.

In case of non-cooperation, the ICC judges can make an appropriate conclusion and inform the Assembly of States Parties. Then the Assembly must take whatever action it deems appropriate," he said.

He added that Mongolia, like other member states of the court, has an "obligation to cooperate," which implies honouring arrest warrants such as the one the court issued for Putin's arrest in 2023.

At the same time, Fadi el-Abdallah noted that the agreement states that under certain circumstances states can be exempted from the obligation to arrest if by doing so they would be forced to "violate treaty obligations" with another country or if doing so would violate "the diplomatic immunity of a person or property of a third party."

The trip, scheduled for Tuesday, will be Putin's first visit to an ICC member state since the court issued a warrant for his arrest in March 2023. The Kremlin has already said it is "not worried" about the visit.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry urged the Mongolian authorities to honour the binding international arrest warrant and hand Putin over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

We will remind, on 17 March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Putin and the Russian Commissioner for children's rights Maria Lvovskaya-Belova. They are suspected of illegal deportation and relocation of Ukrainian children. If they leave Russian territory for countries participating in the ICC and ratifying the Rome Statute, they are to be arrested and brought to trial.