PARIS (Reuters) – France, which is under pressure over its stance on an international arrest warrant issued for Israel’s prime minister, declined on Thursday to say whether it would be prepared to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin under a similar warrant.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last week for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence chief and a Hamas military leader for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict.
All European Union member states, including France, are signatories to the ICC’s founding treaty but France said on Wednesday it believed Netanyahu had immunity to actions by the ICC as Israel has not signed up to the court statutes.
The ICC has also issued an arrest warrant against Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, although Russia is not a signatory to the ICC’s founding treaty.
French foreign ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said on Thursday that France’s legal position was essentially the same on the arrest warrants issued for Putin and Netanyahu.
“We’ve probably been less precise when commenting on Putin’s case compared to the present one but, in any case, our position is the same,” Lemoine told reporters.
Asked if this meant France would not arrest Putin if he set foot on French soil, he said: “With regard to Vladimir Putin all those who committed crimes, there is no impunity. They have to be held responsible for their deeds, and we have always said that we’ll apply international law in all its aspects.”
But he said the question of immunity, which he said was enshrined in the ICC’s statutes, was “complex” and that states sometimes had differing views on the issue.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel and John Irish, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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