Russia on Friday issued a warrant seeking a top International Criminal Court prosecutor in retaliation for The Hague’s decision to seek Russian President Vladimir Putin’s arrest for war crimes.
The British ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, was added to the Russian Interior Ministry’s wanted list, state-owned news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti reported, citing the ministry’s database.
The notice described Khan as a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, born on March 30, 1970, but did not specify the charge against him.
Moscow opened cases against Khan and three ICC judges — Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez — on March 20, mere days after the court issued the order for Putin’s arrest.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said at the time that Khan was being investigated for the “criminal prosecution of a person known to be innocent.”
In its first-ever warrant related to the Ukraine war, the ICC called for Putin’s arrest on suspicion of unlawful abduction and deportation of children, along with the illegal transfer of people from Ukraine to Russia.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes,” The Hague, Netherlands-based court said.
Separately, the court issued a warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, on the same charges as her boss.
The Kremlin has made no secret of its plot to bring thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia under the guise of a humanitarian campaign led by Lvova-Belova.
The move followed a year-long investigation by Khan, who has visited Ukraine four times since the invasion to gather evidence of possible war crimes.
Russia has denied committing war crimes and dismissed the warrants as “meaningless” because it does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky applauded the issuing of the warrant for Putin’s arrest, and President Biden said it was “justified.”
With Post wires
