MOSCOW, September 25 The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs has put the Chairman of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Piotr Hofmanski on the wanted list, according to data from the department’s search database posted on the ministry’s website.
“ “Grounds for the search: wanted under an article of the Criminal Code,” noted the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In March, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children's Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova. The court charges them, among other things, with allegedly “deporting” children whom the authorities rescued from Ukrainian shelling and took from the combat zone to safe areas.
A few days later, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against ICC judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala, Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez and prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan. The first three were charged with deliberately illegal detention and preparation for an attack on a representative of a foreign state, and the prosecutor was charged with bringing a knowingly innocent person to criminal liability, coupled with illegally accusing a person of committing a serious or especially serious crime.
In May, the chairman of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, stated that the agency would put on the wanted list the ICC judges who issued the warrant for the “arrest” of Putin.
How The press secretary of the Russian leader, Dmitry Peskov, said that raising the issue of the ICC about the “arrest of Putin” is unacceptable. Moscow does not recognize the jurisdiction of the court, and any of its decisions are void from a legal point of view. Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, in turn, noted that issuing a warrant creates a colossal negative potential and could have consequences in the form of a response from Russia.
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