Russia puts international court’s top leadership on wanted list

Russia’s ministry of internal affairs has placed International Criminal Court (ICC) President Piotr Hofmański on its wanted list, according to the ministry’s online database.

The site does not specify what Hofmański is wanted for, but it states he is “wanted under the article of the Criminal Code,” reported Russian state-run news site TASS. Alongside Hofmański, the ministry also added ICC Vice President Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza and judge Bertram Schmitt to the wanted list.

Moscow has been retaliating against the ICC, which back in March issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova over the forced transfer of children to Russia since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began last year.

Russia said it did not recognize the court’s authority and quickly responded to the arrest warrant by opening its own criminal case against the ICC prosecutors and judges.

Since then, Russia has placed several ICC officials on its wanted list, including British prosecutor Karim Khan and judges Tomoko Akane and Rosario Salvatore Aitala.