MOSCOW, July 27. /TASS/. International Criminal Court (ICC) judge Tomoko Akane, who issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, has been formally designated as wanted on criminal charges, according to the wanted list maintained by the Russian Interior Ministry.
"Tomoko Akane. [Female] Japanese national. Wanted under an article of the Russian Criminal Code," the listing states. No specific charges have been indicated.
The ICC, which sits in The Hague, Netherlands, issued arrest warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova on March 17. The court’s statement said they could be liable "for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation." On March 20, the Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against ICC prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan and judges Rosario Salvatore Aitala, Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez and Tomoko Akane, saying that their actions are unlawful as there were no grounds for charging Russia’s head of state and children’s rights ombudswoman with criminal liability. In May, charges were brought against Khan and Aitala and both were listed as wanted.
Under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons of December 14, 1973, heads of state enjoy absolute immunity from foreign states’ jurisdiction.