President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa this Saturday refused to comment on the issuance of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he did not know the basis for this process.
“We’ll wait and see,” he said, before adding, “I have no comment on this procedure.”
The head of state spoke in Funchal, where he is present at the Congress of Portuguese Judges and at the opening of the Madeira delegation of SEDES – the Association for Economic and Social Development.
“I won’t comment because, apart from not knowing the basics, this is a specific process in the international domain,” he said, emphasizing: “I don’t comment on the domestic domain, I don’t comment on the international domain. especially without knowing the basics.
“I assume that this is due to the Russian intervention in Ukraine and some aspects of this intervention, but only after seeing this process, I can say about it,” he added.
The International Criminal Court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president for war crimes, namely his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of children in Ukraine.
In its statement, the ICC accuses Putin of being “allegedly responsible for the war crime of illegally deporting the population.” [crianças] and illegal population transfer [crianças] from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation”.
The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Alekseevna Lvova-Belova, the Ombudsman for Children’s Rights under the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar charges.