Putin travels to Mongolia, defying international court arrest order
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday made his first visit to a member state of the International Criminal Court since he was indicted on a charge of war crimes last year but faces little threat of arrest in Mongolia.
Signatories to the Rome Statute setting up the court are obligated to detain individuals for whom the court has issued arrest warrants. The court indicted Putin and his human rights commissioner for children, Maria Lvova-Belova, for war crimes in March 2023 after Russia removed thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Putin canceled a visit to an August 2023 BRICS summit in Johannesburg after a South African court affirmed the government’s duty to arrest Putin if he visited.
Mongolia, however, has long lived in Russia’s shadow; the two have close relations, and it clearly has no intent of carrying out the warrant.
Neither Russia, China nor the United States is a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court to prosecute those guilty of crimes against humanity when courts with jurisdiction fail to act. But Mongolia is a signatory, and a Mongolian judge serves on the court.
An open letter by the Antiwar Human Rights Coalition, signed by dozens of rights advocates and organizations, including Vladimir Kara-Murza, one of the Russian political prisoners freed last month in a historic prisoner exchange, called on Mongolia’s government to fulfill its obligations and arrest Putin.
“ All this human suffering is caused by the will of one person-Vladimir Putin. You can end it by upholding the law,” the letter said. “If you do, Mongolia will free three countries at once: Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.”
U.K. suspends some arms sales to Israel after government review
LONDON - Britain is suspending some arms exports to Israel, Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced Monday, citing “a clear risk” that the arms might be used in “serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
The move marks a shift for the United Kingdom and came as part of the new Labour government’s review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law amid its war in Gaza. Lammy said the government had a “legal duty” to do the review.
The suspended arms export licenses, about 30 out of around 350, include sales of components for military aircraft including fighter aircraft, helicopters and drones. The arms also include items believed to be used for ground targeting, Lammy said.
“The assessment I have received leaves me unable to conclude anything other than that for certain U.K. arms exports to Israel, there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law,” Lammy said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Britain’s decision “sends a very problematic message” to Hamas and “its sponsors in Iran,” while Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said he was “deeply disheartened” by Britain’s announcement.
Lammy stressed that the suspension was “not a blanket ban” or “an arms embargo” and that the British government has not “and could not - arbitrate on whether or not Israel has breached international humanitarian law.”
“This is a forward looking evaluation, not a determination of innocence or guilt, and it does not prejudge any future determinations by the competent courts,” he said.
Britain is not a major supplier of arms to Israel and says its arms exports represent 0.02% of Israel’s overall military imports.
Venezuela requests arrest of opposition candidate who claimed victory
Venezuela’s attorney general’s office filed an arrest warrant Monday against opposition candidate Edmundo González, who the United States and other countries say clearly beat the country’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, in the July 28 presidential election.
The attorney general has targeted González, a 75-year-old former diplomat, as part of an investigation into the opposition’s publication of vote tally sheets showing their candidate won more than twice as many votes as Maduro. The opposition published the receipts from more than 23,000 voting machines days after Venezuela’s electoral council claimed a victory by Maduro. Several independent reviews of the data, including by the Washington Post, suggest Maduro likely lost the election by a landslide.
The electoral council, which is controlled by the autocrat, has not released official precinct-level results from the election, despite repeated calls from world leaders. Instead, Maduro’s government has cracked down against the opposition, with a wave of arrests that has forced many opposition leaders into hiding.
González has remained in hiding in recent weeks as authorities have rounded up and arrested opposition leaders, sometimes on the street in the middle of the day. González was last seen in public more than a month ago.
From wire reports