Moscow issued the arrest warrant in response to an international court placing Russian President Vladimir Putin on a wanted list in March.
The ICC has now said Russia’s move is an attempt to undermine “the legal mandate to ensure accountability for the most serious crimes”.
He also said the arrest warrant issued by Russian authorities was “inadmissible” and would not prevent the court from continuing to fulfill its mandate.
Russia has issued an arrest warrant for the chief prosecutor from The Hague. In retaliation for Putin
The war in Ukraine
Suspected child abductions
In March, the court in The Hague opened the prosecution of Putin and also of the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, over the abduction of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories to Russia.
Both have been issued arrest warrants by the ICC, accusing them of involvement in these forced deportations. According to the Ukrainian platform Diti vijny (Children of War), over 19,000 children were smuggled into Russia.
According to Moscow, the international arrest warrant for Putin has no meaning, since Russia does not fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC. In practice, however, the arrest warrant means that over 120 countries that recognize the jurisdiction of the court have the obligation to detain Putin if he finds himself on their territory.
South Africa begs Putin not to go there: We would have to arrest you
Foreign
Questions about other cases
However, some experts are concerned about the speed with which Khan has focused on alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine, while investigations into other cases remain elusive.
We are talking, for example, about the shooting of al-Jazeera television reporter Shirin Abu Aklah by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank last May.
Al Jazeera approached the ICC with a request to investigate her death last December, but the tribunal has not yet taken any action in this regard.
Israeli police attacked a crowd of Palestinians carrying the coffin of a shot journalist
Near and Middle East
“(Khan) has made it clear that he has no interest in continuing the investigation (into Abu Aklah’s death),” noted William Schabas, a professor of international law at Middlesex University.
According to him, the chief prosecutor has “very clearly aligned himself with the pro-Alliance and pro-Western position” and all the energy of the tribunal is “directed in that direction”.
Another example is the issue of alleged crimes committed in Afghanistan since 2003.
Shortly after being elected to office last year, Khan announced that he would only investigate crimes committed by the Taliban and the so-called Islamic State, and would leave out of the investigation possible crimes by US troops (which, like Russia, do not recognize the ICC).
“Investigations must address serious crimes by all parties to the conflict, including US forces. Justice must be guaranteed even in cases involving the most powerful states,” argued Patricia Gossman from the human rights organization Human Rights Watch.
Reporters Without Borders calls for an investigation into the airstrike on a media building in Gaza
Near and Middle East
