The top investigative agency in Russia has initiated a criminal case against the prosecutor and judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) who issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin on charges of war crimes. This announcement was made on Monday by the state Investigative Committee, in yet another display of Russian defiance, three days after the ICC accused Putin and his children's commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, of the war crime of deporting children from Ukraine to Russia.
Putin, a day after being accused, made an unexpected visit to the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which has suffered some of the worst destruction during his year-long invasion of Ukraine. The committee stated that there were no grounds for criminal liability on Putin's part, and that heads of state enjoyed absolute immunity under a 1973 United Nations convention.
The Russian statement said that the criminal prosecution was clearly illegal, as there were no grounds for criminal liability. The committee also stated that the actions of the ICC prosecutor showed signs of being crimes under Russian law, including knowingly accusing an innocent person of a crime.
The prosecutor and judges were also suspected of "preparing an attack on a representative of a foreign state enjoying international protection, in order to complicate international relations." The Kremlin has called the ICC warrant outrageous but legally void, as Russia is not a signatory to the treaty that created the ICC.
On Monday, it was stated that the court's action was a clear indication of the hostility towards Russia and President Putin personally. ICC President Piotr Hofmanski explained to Al Jazeera on Friday that Russia's absence from the ICC is irrelevant in the issuance of the warrant.
He stated that the ICC has jurisdiction over crimes committed in the territory of a state party or a state that has accepted its jurisdiction, and Ukraine has done so twice, in 2014 and 2015. The individuals targeted in the Russian investigation are prosecutor Karim Khan, a British lawyer, and judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala, and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez.
The ICC's decision obligates its 123 member states to arrest Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he enters their territory. However, since Russia does not extradite its citizens, Putin is unlikely to take that risk. Nevertheless, this rare move against a sitting president is a significant symbolic step in holding him accountable for the consequences of his invasion of Ukraine. According to Ukraine, over 16,000 children have been illegally transferred to Russia or Russian-occupied territories since the conflict began almost 13 months ago.
Russia has announced that it has transported numerous Ukrainian children to its territory as part of a humanitarian effort to safeguard orphans and neglected children in the war-torn region.
