LIKE in many national court jurisdictions, individuals ordered arrested by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on suspicion of having committed a crime are presumed innocent unless proved otherwise in a fair trial. In the case of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Bolova, of whom the ICC recently issued a warrant of arrest for the war crime of unlawful deportation of children, and the transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, many people, including those in media, have already been referring to them as "war criminals." They should properly be called at this stage "suspects" and during their trial "the accused."
There are people, however, who for good reason cannot conceive of Putin being arrested, detained and tried. The Russian Federation is not a state party of the ICC, and even if it were, no one would dare handcuff Putin. Russia is a police state, and every sensible Russian exists only to make Putin smile. Anyone with some courage and conviction ends up poisoned or pushed out of their apartment windows.
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