According to Russia’s investigative committee, “criminal prosecution is clearly unlawful as there is no basis for criminal liability.” Photo: Ria Novosti
The Russian investigative committee reported on Monday it had opened a criminal case against International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan and judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godínez, who last week issued an arrest warrant against the Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
According to the agency’s official statement, based on the prosecutor’s application for an arrest warrant against Russian citizens, the ICC judges rule on “illegally issued arrest warrants” against the Russian President and the Presidential Commissioner for Human Rights of the Child in Russia. Maria Lvova-Belova.
HE Recalls that the criminal case instituted by the ICC is “willfully unlawful as there is no ground for criminal liability” and stresses that under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons Signed in 1973, heads of state enjoy absolute immunity from the jurisdiction of foreign states.
Therefore, the Investigative Committee believes that the actions of the prosecutor and judges contain elements of criminal offenses under the Russian Criminal Code, in particular “the prosecution of a known innocent person in connection with the unlawful conviction of a person for a serious crime or particularly serious criminal offences as well as preparing an attack on a representative of a foreign state enjoying international protection with the intention of aggravating international relations”.
Last Friday, the Hague-based court issued an arrest warrant for Putin, noting the alleged deportation of Ukrainian minors to Russian territory, which it qualifies as a war crime, and noting that there are ample reasons to believe in a direct responsibility of the Russian presidents.
For his part, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the arrest warrant against the Russian president was “unacceptable” and that Moscow does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court.
“We consider the mere framing of the case to be scandalous and unacceptable. Russia, like several countries, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court, and for Moscow such a decision is irrelevant from a legal point of view,” he said.
The International Criminal Court was established in 2002 to investigate serious violations of the Geneva Conventions and bring to justice those responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
The 1998 Rome Statute has been ratified by 123 countries, which do not include Russia, Ukraine, the US, China and Israel, among others.
(With information from RT in Spanish and TeleSur)