Alfred De Zayas on the Arrest Warrant for Putin
UNITED NATIONS, 3 Apr 2023
Defend Democracy Press - TRANSCEND Media Service
29 Mar 2023 – The arrest warrant for the President of Russia, issued by the International Criminal Court is, on one side, a rather ridiculous affair. To be applied the West has to launch a successful nuclear war against Russia and then arrest its President, provided both the ICC and Putin survive. It proves in what universe western political leaders live and why it is so easy for the “Party of War” to manipulate them.
But from another aspect this affair can have serious repercussions and probably, as the Nord Stream sabotage, is also meant as much against Europe as against Russia. What the “Black International” wants to achieve, among others, is to “forbid” to European leaders to speak peace with Putin. How they will be able to negotiate, or meet, with a “wanted criminal”?
We asked Professor Alfred de Zayas for his comment on the situation. He is a distinguished Professor of International Law in Switzerland, has served as a special rapporteur of the United Nations and he is the author of 10 books. He is respected worldwide for both his scientific strength and for his integrity.
In the past he had advocated the establishment of the International Criminal Court but now he became aware of how the ICC has been politicized and made irrelevant. He believes the ICC would only serve a purpose if it were rigorously independent, objective and professional. The weaponization of the ICC to buttress US imperialism is painful. After 20 years of largely political, not strictly legal activity, the ICC deserves to be abolished, the Swiss jurist believes. Justice means justice for all, not only for privileged countries.
According to the Swiss scholar, the current prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Asad Ahmad Khan KC, a British lawyer specializing in international criminal law, who has served in the post since 2021, has blatantly demonstrated his bias by discontinuing investigation of war crimes by the US in Afghanistan, but continuing investigations against Taliban.
No one from the West was ever indicted after the establishment of the ICC in 2002, Alfred de Zayas pointed out. In 20 years it only indicted Africans and for that reason it was rightly called neo-colonial. Now it indicts Putin, revealing its flagrant Western bias. Since the entry into force of the Rome Statute there have been thousands of war crimes under the responsibility of NATO governments. War crimes have been documented in NATO wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. Why has no one ever been indicted there?, Professor de Zayas asks. If the ICC indicts Putin, why not Tony Blair, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Joe Biden etc. ?
By issuing “warrants of arrest” against two senior Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has revealed, according to Professor de Zayas its flagrant Western bias, killing its own credibility.
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Alfred-Maurice de Zayas is a Cuban-born American lawyer and writer, active in the field of human rights and international law. He worked from 1981 to 2003 as a senior lawyer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Chief of Petitions.
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Tags: International Criminal Court ICC, Putin
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