Among the reasons that would have pushed Russian President Vladimir Putin not to attend the Pope's funeral there is also the fear of being arrested due to the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine.

But the mandate in Italy is not effective at this time because the Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio never transmitted the documents to the Court of Appeal in Rome . A situation that would have caused friction between Rome and The Hague, according to what the Corriere della Sera writes.

This is a similar story to what happened with the alleged Libyan murderer and torturer Almasri : in that case too, after the arrest deemed irregular by the judges, the ministry decided not to send the documentation to the court, thus causing his release from prison.

The choice against Putin would be a political one, like the one that similarly renders ineffective the arrest warrant against the head of the Israeli government Benjamin Netanyahu , accused of war crimes committed in Gaza.

"With regard to him," writes the Corriere, "the Italian government has explicitly implied that it considers heads of state and government protected by an immunity that preserves them from legal action at least while they are in office , and the same reasoning could be valid with Putin. An assessment contested by the judges of the ICC, who do not consider it applicable to war crimes or crimes against humanity , as well as to genocide."

(Online Union)

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