When the US threatened to arrest ICC judges if they tried soldiers in Afghanistan

20 March 20231 year ago babelfish

There is a lot of talk these days about the International Court of Criminal Justice and the arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin for war crimes linked to the alleged abduction of Ukrainian minors and their forced transfer to Russia.

Moscow does not adhere to the treaty establishing the Court, so Putin risks nothing either in Russia or in that half of the world that is not part of the institution. But how did other superpowers, such as the USA for example, act when there was the risk of condemnation by this institution?

In November 2017, it appeared that the Court was to indict the US military for war crimes for the abuse (read, torture) of Afghan prisoners. Washington did not take this very well and threatened to arrest judges and court officials if the court brought war crimes charges against the US military. White House National Security Advisor John Bolton called the Hague-based advocacy body "utterly dangerous" to the United States, Israel and other allies, and said any investigation into members of the American service would be “an entirely unfounded and unjustifiable investigation”. “If the court turns against us, Israel or other allies of the United States, we will not sit on our hands.” Then he said, “We will ban judges and prosecutors from entering the United States. We will sanction their funds in the US financial system and prosecute them in the US criminal system." "We will do the same to any company or state assisting an International Criminal Court investigation against Americans."

But it's not over. Bolton, noting that Palestinians were trying to indict Israeli soldiers, said, "The United States will use all means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unfair prosecution by this illegitimate court." “We will not cooperate with the International Criminal Court. We will not provide any assistance to the ICC. We certainly will not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own."

So the ICC has value only when it attacks the enemies of the USA, which are not part of it, but if it threatens the USA then it becomes an enemy to be fought with even extreme means. At this point, think about how much Putin is interested in this investigation. The court bites only lapsed or limited powers, as happened to the breakaway Serbian republic of Bosnia or Serbia. It can do little against a real state….

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The article When the US threatened to arrest the judges of the International Criminal Court if they tried the soldiers in Afghanistan comes from Scenari Economics .

This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/quando-gli-usa-minacciarono-di-arrestare-i-giudici-della-corte-penale-internazionale-se-avessero-processato-i-soldati-in-afghanistan/ on Sun, 19 Mar 2023 14:43:13 +0000.