Russia issues arrest order for ICC prosecutor after Putin warrant

Karim Khan, the prosecutor at the Hague-based war crimes court, was added to the Interior Ministry’s wanted list, Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency reported on Friday, citing the ministry’s database.

A picture of the ICC prosecutor, who is a citizen of the United Kingdom, could be seen in the Russian interior ministry’s database on Friday, according to news reports.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles major crimes, said in March that Khan was being probed for the “criminal prosecution of a person known to be innocent” – in reference to the war crime charges against Putin.

The ICC prosecutor was also being investigated for allegedly preparing “an attack on a representative of a foreign state enjoying international protection”, Russian investigators stated at the time.

The wanted notice described Khan as a man born on March 30, 1970 in Edinburgh, Scotland but did not specify his offence.

Russia opened the criminal probe into Khan after the ICC announced an arrest warrant had been issued for Putin over accusations he had committed war crimes by unlawfully deporting thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.

The international court also issued an arrest warrant against Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights.

Kyiv claims more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia since the beginning of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, with more than 4,000 believed to be orphans. Many are allegedly placed in institutions and foster homes.

Announcing the arrest warrants in March, the ICC said there were “reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility” for the abductions of Ukrainian children, and “for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (and) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts”.

The ICC was later forced to issue a statement of concern after former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threatened to hit the war crimes court in The Hague with hypersonic missiles. Earlier this month, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the ICC “a puppet in the hands of the so-called collective West”, the Moscow Times reported.

Russia, which is not a member of the ICC, has announced the warrant is “void”.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin at the time hailed the ICC decision to issue arrest warrants.

“The world received a signal that the Russian regime is criminal and its leadership and henchmen will be held accountable,” he stated, adding, “This is a historic decision for Ukraine and the entire system of international law.”