The International Criminal Court (ICC) today condemned the “coercive and unjustified” measures taken by Russia, which placed the prosecutor of that court Karim Khan on a wanted list, after he issued an arrest warrant against President Vladimir Putin. , and assured that he will not be intimidated by the Kremlin.
“The ICC considers these measures to be unacceptable. The Court will not be intimidated in carrying out its legal mandate to ensure accountability for the most serious crimes,” the ICC said in a statement.
The court also urged the 123 member states to “intensify their efforts to protect the Court, its officials and staff, and to ensure that it can continue to fulfill its independent mandate.”
Yesterday, Moscow issued a search and arrest warrant against prosecutor Khan, in an announcement posted on the website of the Ministry of Interior that does not clarify the nature of the crime with which he is charged.
The Kremlin’s decision comes two months after the ICC issued arrest warrants for Putin and Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, holding them responsible for the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Moscow rejected the accusation, which it described as legally “null”, and assured that it alludes to a case of evacuation from the combat operations zone, to take children to safe places.
In turn, the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zajarova, commenting on the “arrest warrant” issued against the Russian president, recalled that senior State officials enjoy absolute immunity from criminal jurisdiction and that the ICC cannot abolish it.
He also recalled that the court is a body in which many States do not participate, in particular Russia, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, the United States, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkey, which do not recognize its jurisdiction and where more than half of the world’s population lives.
Source: Ambito
