Is Russia’s Vladimir Putin a ‘war criminal’ as per Joe Biden’s words? Details inside

New Delhi: President of the United States of America, Joe Biden on Wednesday called Russia’s Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” for initiating a so-called onslaught in Ukraine, where hospitals and maternity wards have been bombed. However, it is a hard decision to declare someone as a war criminal unlike it is easy saying. There are certain definitions and processes for determining someone as a war criminal and how they should be punished.

The White House has been keeping away from applying the designation to Putin, claiming that it requires investigation and an international determination. After Biden pronounced the term today, White House press secretary Jen Psaki stated that the president was “speaking from his heart” and renewed her statements that there is a process for making a formal determination.

Though the term has a colloquial meaning, it is a generic term for someone awful.

“Clearly Putin is a war criminal, but the president is speaking politically on this,” said David Crane who previously worked on war crimes for decades and served as chief prosecutor for the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone, which tried former Liberian President Charles Taylor.

The investigations for Putin’s action have already started. Apart from the U.S., 44 other countries are working together to investigate the possible violations and abuses, after the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution to establish a commission of inquiry. Besides, another probe is being carried out in the International Criminal Court, a Netherland-based independent body.

“We’re at the beginning of the beginning,” said Crane, who now heads the Global Accountability Network, which works with the international court and United Nations, among others. On the day of the invasion, his group organised a task force compiling criminal information for war crimes. Besides, he is also drafting a sample indictment against Putin. Crane predicted that an indictment of Putin could happen within a year, however, there’s no statute of limitations.

The most obvious way Putin could come into the picture of a war criminal is through the widely recognised legal doctrine of command responsibility. If the commanders order or even know or are in a position to know about the crimes and did nothing to prevent them, they can be held legally responsible.