Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo / Mikhail Svetlov, Getty Images, File
Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo / Mikhail Svetlov, Getty Images, File
EDITORIAL
The notion that “nobody is above the law”, that anyone can be held accountable, is unconvincing most of the time and has seemed particularly flimsy in recent years.
Yet the line is trotted out overseas whenever an occasional criminal big fish gets snagged in court proceedings.
Especially in thepolitical arena, very few powerful people who appear to have questions of possible wrongdoing to answer are made to deal with real consequences.
As a reminder, the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War passed yesterday. None of the top instigators of the US-led invasion based on the wrong assertion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction faced consequences for a conflict that killed at least 275,000 civilians and cost trillions.
There was also costly fallout such as the rise of Isis (Islamic State) and terror attacks in the West. Some argue that it handed the likes of Vladmir Putin the opening to operate with impunity.
Illustration / Rod Emmerson
Now the “nobody is above the law” phrase is being uttered again. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz used it in welcoming the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes involving abduction of Ukrainian children.
At this stage, it’s mainly symbolic and political. Russia, the US and China do not recognise the ICC. To be detained, Putin would have to travel to one of the 123 member countries. He can’t be tried in absentia.
Still, it is the start of the ICC’s case considering other reports such as the mass graves of Bucha. And Putin is a rare sitting leader to be an officially alleged war criminal. The first ruling leader to be indicted by the ICC was Omar al-Bashir of Sudan in 2009.
A weakened Putin - as a captured former leader - would be more likely to face trial.
In the US, former US vice-president Mike Pence deployed “no one is above the law” in a measured response to claims from his former boss Donald Trump.
In a social media post, the ex-president, said he expects to be arrested over the long-running Stormy Daniels criminal case about 2016 hush money payments. A Manhattan grand jury indictment is expected at some stage.
Trump is frontrunner for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination and popular with party members.
Pence, who is expected to challenge Trump, also said: “The idea of indicting a former president of the United States is deeply troubling to me, as it is to tens of millions of Americans”.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, tweeted that he wanted investigations into whether federal funds were being used for “politically motivated prosecutions”.
CNN analyst Ron Brownstein tweeted in response: “US has grown numb to a GOP leader declaring that any attempt to hold Trump accountable is inherently illegitimate and an ‘abuse of power’. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that another option is available: support rule of law, say legal process must play out, as with any American.“
Trump is also under investigation over the 2021 attack by his supporters on the Capitol. There are criminal probes into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. The Justice Department is investigating Trump’s possession of classified documents at his Florida estate.
The greatest test of “no one is above the law” has to be whether it can apply to current or former leaders of superpowers.
