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The president of the International Criminal Court lashed out on Monday at Russia for targeting its prosecutors and judges over the panel’s investigation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and slammed comments by a U.S. senator threatening the court.
Judge Tomoko Akane said in her address to the annual meeting of the world’s top war-crimes court that attacks against the ICC were shameful — referring to Russia’s arrest warrants for the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan and several of its judges.
These individuals are “subjected to arrest warrants from a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, merely for having faithfully and diligently carried out their judicial mandate per the statutory framework and international law,” she said.
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Moscow issued warrants for Khan and the others in response to the ICC investigation and arrest warrants for Putin over the war in Ukraine.
The Japanese judge also had harsh words for U.S. officials, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has called the court a “a rogue and politically motivated organization” after the judges last month issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Graham said he was confident Donald Trump’s incoming administration would “respond forcefully” to these actions by the court.
“The court is being threatened with draconian economic sanctions by another permanent member of the Security Council as if it was a terrorist organization,” Akane said, without elaborating.
During his last term in office, Trump had sanctioned the court’s previous prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, with a travel ban and asset freeze for investigating American troops and intelligence officials in Afghanistan.
Monday’s meeting marks the start this week of the Assembly of States Parties, which represents the ICC’s 124 member countries, of the ICC’s 23rd conference to elect committee members and approve the court’s budget against a backdrop of unfavorable headlines.
The ICC was established in 2002 as the world’s permanent court of last resort to prosecute individuals responsible for the most heinous atrocities — war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression.
The court only becomes involved when nations are unable or unwilling to prosecute those crimes on their territory. To date, 124 countries have signed on to the Rome Statute, which created the institution. Those who have not include the United States, Israel, Russia and China.
The ICC has no police force and relies on member states to execute arrest warrants.
The decision to issue warrants for Netanyahu and Israel’s former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has been denounced by critics of the court and given only milquetoast approval by many of its supporters, a stark contrast to the robust backing of an arrest warrant for Putin last year over war crimes in Ukraine.
President Joe Biden called the warrants for Netanyahu and the former defense minister outrageous and vowed to stand with Israel. A year ago, Biden said the warrant for Putin justified and said the Russian president had committed war crimes.
France said it would “respect its obligations” but would need to consider Netanyahu’s possible immunities. When the warrant for Putin was announced, France said it would “lend its support to the essential work” of the court.
