Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is at the risk of ending up in prison for war crimes carried out by his Russian forces in Ukraine, Britain’s Justice Secretary has said.
Dominic Raab, who is also Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister, was asked on Times Radio on Friday whether he saw the conflict ending with the Russian president “imprisoned for war crimes.’’
He said: “I think it is a very real risk that he must now contemplate.’’
“Beyond his personal situation, every commander operating in Ukraine, or indeed Moscow, when they are faced with illegal orders, whether it is to target civilians or otherwise, attack illegal or unlawful sites, they now know the ICC (International Criminal Court) is investigating and the chief prosecutor Karim Khan is, I believe, travelling to Ukraine.
“They must now know that they face the very real risk of ending up in the dock of a court and, ultimately, in a prison if they follow through on those illegal, unlawful orders.’’
Meanwhile, Raab said he was looking to change the law to prevent Russian oligarchs and kleptocrats from exploiting the British justice system to “silence’’ those investigating corruption linked to Vladimir Putin’s regime.
He said, “There is another aspect to this that I’m looking at as a matter of urgency and will be producing proposals on very shortly,’’ the Cabinet minister told BBC Breakfast.
“We have seen oligarchs and kleptocrats and those with links to Putin coming into this country and suing under our libel laws those who are shining a light, whether it is authors or NGOs, on corruption and abuse.
“And that is an abuse of our system and I’m going to be putting forward proposals to deal with that and to prevent that.
“It cannot be right that kleptocrats and those with links to Putin can silence those shining a light on those excesses and use our courts to do so.’’
