Russia on Monday opened a criminal investigation against the Attorney General of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan. The decision comes after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The Russian Commission of Inquiry has opened a criminal case against the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Ahmad Khan,” and several judges of the ICC, based on the “illegal” and unfounded decision to issue an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin.
“Criminal prosecution is clearly illegal, as there is no basis for criminal responsibility,” the Russian Commission of Inquiry said, pointing out that ICC judges “made illegal decisions” to detain Russia’s president and commissioner for the rights of women and children.
The commission adds that “heads of state enjoy absolute immunity from the jurisdiction of foreign states”.
Remember, the International Criminal Court on Friday issued an international arrest warrant against the Russian president for war crimes in Ukraine, for his alleged involvement in the deportation of children from Ukrainian-occupied territories to Russia.
In addition to Putin, an arrest warrant has also been issued for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the child rights commissioner of the Russian presidency, on charges similar to those of the Russian president.
The court ruled that there are “reasonable grounds to believe that each of the accused is responsible for the war crime of illegally deporting civilians and illegally transferring population from occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, to the detriment of [dos direitos] of Ukrainian children.”
At the time, the Kremlin announced that the ICC decision is legally “null and void” as Moscow does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction.
“Russia, like many other countries, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court and therefore the decisions of this court are null and void from a legal point of view,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin is “outrageous and unacceptable”, according to the Russian presidency.
Source: DN
