THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court (ICC) has declared that it was undeterred after Russia “placed its chief prosecutor Karim Khan on a wanted list.”
It comes two months after Karim Khan of the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin of Russia.
In a statement on Saturday, the court said the Russian was an attempt to undermine its “lawful mandate to ensure accountability for the gravest crimes”, the BBC said.
The warrant against Putin has previously been referred to as “void” by Russia, a non-ICC member.
In March, Khan, a British attorney, issued the order for President Putin’s arrest. It focused on the illegal repatriation of children from Ukraine to Russia and claimed that Putin was accountable for war crimes.
The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, on similar charges.
According to officials in Kyiv, more than 16,000 children are believed to have been forcefully moved from Ukraine to Russia since the war started.
At the time, the ICC stated that there were legitimate reasons to suspect that both Putin and Lvova-Belova had personal criminal responsibility.
The investigative committee of the Kremlin, meanwhile, declared last week that it will start looking into Khan for the “criminal prosecution of an individual known to be innocent.”
The International Criminal Court, which is based in The Hague, stated in a statement on Saturday that it was “aware and deeply concerned about unwarranted and unjustifiable coercive measures reportedly taken against ICC officials”.
The court deemed the actions “unacceptable” and said that it would not be hindered from “fulfilling its independent mandate.”
On the measures taken against him, Mr. Khan has not yet responded.
In the meantime, Virginia Gamba, the UN secretary-general’s special envoy for children and armed conflict, came under fire after seeing Ms. Lvova-Belova allegedly in Moscow.
Reuters quoted the Russian side as stating the talk was “constructive and sincere”.
“Ukrainian prisoners deserve to see Lvova-Belova behind bars in The Hague, not meeting with high-level UN officials,” said Balkees Jarrah, Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Programme associate director.
Lvova-Belova said in September of last year that some of the kids who had been taken from Mariupol “spoke badly about the [Russian President], said awful things, and sang the Ukrainian anthem.”
