The Moscow City Court sentenced in absentia the prosecutor and eight judges of the International Criminal Court to terms from 3.5 to 15 years of imprisonment. This was reported on 12 December by the Investigative Committee of Russia and the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation.
The defendants in the criminal case were ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore, Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez, Haikel Ben Mahfoud, Peter Hofmansky, Carranza Luz del Carmen Ibanez, Bertram Schmitt, Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini-Gansou.
They were found guilty of unlawful prosecution, unlawful detention and preparation to attack internationally protected persons.
Khan was sentenced to 15 years in prison, the exact terms were not specified to the judges.
Russian investigators say that from February to March 2022, Karim Khan “unlawfully prosecuted” Russian nationals and that the ICC Presidium “instructed the judges to issue knowingly unlawful arrest warrants”.
It is not specified which Russians are in question, although the Russian Investigative Committee has previously reported that the case was opened because of arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova.
The arrest warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova were issued in March 2023. They are accused of responsibility for the illegal deportation of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia.
As the ICC explained, there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Putin is personally responsible for this.
In addition, the ICC issued arrest warrants for the secretary of the Russian Security Council, former Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu, Russian General Staff chief Valeriy Gerasimov, Air Force commander and former commander of the Russian Long-Range Aviation Sergei Kobylash and former commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet Viktor Sokolov.