The Ministry of Internal Affairs follows that the International Criminal Court Prosecutor in The Hague, Karim Khan, who issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March, has been placed on the wanted list in Russia.
Khan’s card reads, “Search basis: wanted under Criminal Code clause.”
The card shows Khan is from Edinburgh, 53 years old. It was not specified under which article it was sought. Also, the card does not list the special qualifications of the ICC prosecutor.
On March 17, the International Criminal Court’s Pre-Trial Chamber issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Russian Juvenile Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova. The court report noted that Putin and Belova were responsible for “a war crime – the illegal deportation of the population (children) from the occupied Ukrainian territory to the Russian Federation.” According to the ICC, this took place from February 24, 2022.
Moscow does not recognize the decisions and activities of the ICC. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov described the formulation of the criminal court issue as “outrageous and unacceptable”.
“Russia, like some states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court, and therefore such decisions are legally invalid and void for the Russian Federation,” he said.
The Russian Ombudsman ironically reacted to his arrest: “What I want to say: first of all, it is great that the international community appreciates the work done to help the children of our country, that we do not leave them on the battlefield, we take them in our hands. We create good conditions for them, surround them with people who love and care.”
Andrey Klihas, chairman of the Federation Council’s Committee on Constitutional Legislation, noted on his Telegram channel that “the court is on the path of self-liquidating”.
“Russia needs to immediately issue arrest warrants for all ICC ‘judges’,” Klihas added.
On March 20, three days after the search warrant was issued, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case against ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan and judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez.
“The actions of the ICC prosecutor contain signs of guilt under Part 2 of Art. 299, Part 1 of Art. 30, chapter 2, art. 360 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: knowingly bringing an innocent person to criminal responsibility, accusing a person of committing a grave or especially grave crime, as well as preparing to attack the representative of a foreign state, benefiting from international law, while protecting, complicating international relations. .
The investigative committee noted that the criminal prosecution of Putin and Lvova-Belova was illegal because they had absolute immunity from the jurisdiction of foreign states, and there was no reason to bring them to criminal responsibility.
On 11 May, Peskov, in an interview with the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s ATV channel, described the ICC as a puppet in the hands of the collective West. According to him, the arrest of Putin is an instrument of pressure on Russia.
“In this case, we believe that this international structure is essentially a puppet in the hands of the so-called collective West, which uses it for its own purposes to further increase the pressure on our country. It won’t work,” said Peskov.
According to Peskov, some non-sovereign states “purely hypothetically might be interested in carrying out this order” if given the opportunity. But Peskov noted that it is difficult to imagine such a possibility.