The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against the prosecutor and judges of the International Court of Justice in The Hague over the issuance of warrants for the arrest of Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children's Rights in Russia. This was reported in the department's telegram channel.
The case was initiated under the articles on bringing a knowingly innocent person to criminal responsibility, combined with the unlawful accusation of a person of committing a grave or especially grave crime (part 2 of article 299 of the Criminal Code), as well as preparation for an attack on a representative of a foreign state enjoying international protection in order to complicate international relations (part 2 of article 360 with the application of part 1 of article 30 of the Criminal Code).
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan and Judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez are the defendants in the case . According to the IC, the judges made illegal decisions to arrest Putin and Lvova Belova, since, according to the security forces, “there are no grounds for bringing [them] to criminal responsibility.”
On March 17, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Lvova-Belova. According to the court, both of them are responsible for the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine and the occupied territories to Russia during the war.
On the same day, the chairman of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, instructed an inspection due to the issuance of warrants for the arrest of «citizens RF». “As part of the audit, the Investigative Committee of Russia will identify specific individuals from among the judges of the ICC who made the above obviously illegal decisions,” the ministry’s press release said.