According to Politico, a German-owned political publication located in the US, Russia has added Karim Khan, a British prosecutor at the Hague-based court, to its “wanted” list two months after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In connection with an alleged conspiracy to transfer Ukrainian youngsters to Russia, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Russian official Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova in March of this year. The International Criminal Court judged Putin “responsible for war crimes” carried out by Russian soldiers in Ukraine throughout the conflict, which has lasted for more than a year. In the Russian Interior Ministry’s database, where Khan is listed as “wanted on felony charges,” it seems that Khan’s picture and personal information are available, according to a report from Politico quoting Mediazona, an independent news source in Russia.
In March, Russia filed criminal charges against Khan and three ICC judges, claiming that they had shown “signs of crimes” as defined by Russian law.
According to Politico, this includes, in Khan’s case, deliberately charging an innocent person of a crime and, in the instances of the judges, willfully imprisoning someone wrongfully.
The Hague-based court said in a statement dated March that Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of the population (children) unlawful deportation and that of the population (children) unlawful transfer from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
On identical grounds, it also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Russian Federation’s president’s commissioner for children’s rights, according to Al Jazeera.
“Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” is one of five actions that may be charged as genocide under the UN genocide treaty.
The Kremlin has terminated relations with a number of important international organizations since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, further isolating the nation from the West.
Due to its invasion of Ukraine, Russia was ejected from the Council of Europe, the continent’s top human rights organization, in March of last year.
