Czech legal experts pessimistic: Chance of Putin being arrested and brought to The Hague is zero

(Patria) - Former investigator for the Hague Tribunal for crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Vladimir Dzuro, believes that the chance of arresting Russian President Vladimir Putin and bringing him before the International Criminal Court in The Hague is "zero".

Dzuro recalls that this was also the case with Slobodan Milošević until the government in Belgrade changed.

- The arrest of President Vladimir Putin, the president who is still in power in Russia, is practically impossible.

I assume the same applies to the ombudswoman Lvova Belova (for whom the International Criminal Court also issued an arrest warrant yesterday).

There is no way for Putin to be brought before the tribunal unless the situation in Russia changes and he is practically overthrown - Dzuro told the Prague newspaper Lidove noviny.

The Czech investigator, now a UN official, thanks to whom one of the first Hague indictees, former mayor of Vukovar Slavko Dokmanović, was arrested, warned that Milošević would not have ended up in The Hague if he had remained in power.

- If he had been an active president, meaning a president in power, it would have been impossible. Without Serbia's will and cooperation, it would never have been possible to bring him before the court in The Hague - Dzuro states.

Former prosecutor for the Hague Tribunal for crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Ana Richterova, also says that nothing remains but to wait.

- If we compare it to the Hague Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milošević was brought to court only in 2001, even though the war ended in 1995.

No one believed that would happen. But then Serbia's political approach to the tribunal changed, and its representatives decided to arrest and extradite Milošević to The Hague - Richterova said.

The Czech prosecutor reminds that Radovan Karadžić, who was indicted in 1995, was arrested only in 2008, and Ratko Mladić in 2011.

The arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, which should be valid in the 123 countries that have ratified the International Criminal Court in The Hague, was welcomed by Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and President Petr Pavel.

- The arrest warrant shows how brutally Russia acts, in contravention of the international order - Fiala stated.

- If we respect international law, then we must reject its violation, regardless of who it concerns. Crimes against humanity, attacks on civilian targets, abduction of children, and other wartime atrocities cannot be tolerated. Putin is at the head of a country committing these crimes, and therefore the arrest warrant is in order - believes the Czech president.

Dzuro, who wrote the book "Investigator" about the work of the international team in shedding light on war crimes for the Hague Tribunal, and a film based on it is being shown in Czech cinemas, warned in his last interview in December last year that justice can never be satisfied in international courts - whose existence requires political consensus.