EXPLAINER: Who's a war criminal, and who gets to decide?
WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden flatly called Russias Vladimir Putin a war criminal for the unfolding onslaught in Ukraine, where hospitals and maternity wards have been bombed. But declaring someone a war criminal is not as simple as just saying the words. There are set definitions and processes for determining whos a war criminal and how they should be punished.
The White House had been avoiding applying the designation to Putin, saying it requires investigation and an international determination. After Biden used the term on Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president was speaking from his heart and renewed her statements that there is a process for making a formal determination.
In popular usage, though, the phrase has a taken on a colloquial meaning as a generic term for someone whos awful.
Clearly Putin is a war criminal, but the president is speaking politically on this, said David Crane, who has worked on war crimes for decades and served as chief prosecutor for the U.N. Special Court for Sierra Leone, which tried former Liberian President Charles Taylor.
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https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-putin-biden-united-nations-jen-psaki-40e21508055f7ff65424afe2d8e406d8