On Friday, Democratic and Republican senators pushed the Biden administration to share material with the International Criminal Court to help it accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of war crimes.
Putin was arrested last week for war crimes, including unlawfully deporting hundreds of Ukrainian children. If Putin enters their jurisdiction, the court’s 123 members must arrest and extradite him to The Hague.
Democrats Dick Durbin, Robert Menendez, Richard Blumenthal, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Republicans Lindsey Graham and Thom Tillis wrote to President Joe Biden that Congress gave the government additional freedom in helping the ICC.
“However, months later, as the ICC is attempting to construct cases against Russian leaders, including Putin himself,” the letter claimed.
“Aware of your support for the critical cause of accountability in Ukraine, we encourage you to move forward promptly with support to the ICC’s work so that Putin and others around him know in no uncertain terms that accountability and justice for their crimes are imminent,” the letter read.
Last Thursday, Biden stated Putin committed war crimes and that the ICC warrant was appropriate.
Moscow called the court verdict “null and illegitimate” and denied that its soldiers committed crimes during its one-year invasion of its neighbor.
Durbin, the Senate’s second-ranking Democrat and Judiciary Committee head, signed the letter. Graham leads the Republican Judiciary Committee. Menendez chairs Foreign Affairs.
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