The chief investigation agency in Russia announced on Monday that it has filed a criminal complaint against the judge and prosecutor from the International Criminal Court who had issued a warrant for President Vladimir Putin's arrest on suspicion of war crimes.
Three days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) charged Putin and his children's commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova with a war crime for sending children from Ukraine to Russia, the action was a symbolic act of resistance.
According to the official Investigative Committee, Putin is not criminally liable, and according to a 1973 U.N. treaty, presidents of state are completely immune from prosecution.The committee claimed that the ICC prosecutor's activities, including deliberately accusing an innocent person of a crime, appeared to constitute crimes under Russian law.
Also suspected of "preparing an attack against a representative of a foreign state enjoying international protection, in order to complicate international relations," the prosecutor and judges included, were the court system.
While Russia is not a member to the agreement that established the ICC, the Kremlin has called the issuance of the warrant scandalous but legally invalid. It said on Monday that the court's action was evidence of "clear enmity" towards Russia and Putin personally.
Karim Khan, the ICC's chief prosecutor, and the judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala, and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez are the targets of the Russian inquiry.
The Russian statement stated that there were "clearly no grounds for criminal responsibility," making the criminal prosecution unlawful.Putin must now be detained and brought to The Hague for trial if he enters any of the 123 countries that are ICC members.
Putin is not likely to take that chance, and Russia does not extradite its citizens, but the unusual action against a president in office was a significant symbolic gesture to hold him accountable for the results of his invasion of Ukraine.
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