ALBAWABA - On Saturday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) said in a statement that the court is "undeterred" by Russia putting its chief prosecutor on a wanted list.
Just two months after the ICC's chief prosecutor Karim Khan issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin, Russia officially listed Khan on its wanted list as a response.
Russia, which is not a member of the International Criminal Court, previously described the warrant against Putin as "void."
In a statement on Saturday, the ICC said that Khan's warrant is a "lawful mandate to ensure accountability for the gravest crimes." "Aware and profoundly concerned about unwarranted and unjustified coercive measures reportedly taken against ICC officials" they added.
In the warrant, the prosecutor accused Vladimir Putin of war crimes and centered its allegations on the illegal unlawful deportation the Russian army committed against Ukrainian children.
A similar warrant was also issued against Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's child rights commissioner, on similar child abuse violations. In September, Lvova-Belova said that some kids, who were deported from the city of Mariupol, "spoke badly about the [Russian President], said awful things, and sang the Ukrainian anthem."
More than 16,000 children are believed to have been forcibly deported from Ukraine to Russia since the fighting began.
Virginia Gamba, the special representative of the United Nations secretary-general for children and armed conflict, was under the spotlight after her meeting with Lvova-Belova in Moscow. A number of senior officials and human rights groups labeled the meeting as "inappropriate".
In return, the Kremlin's investigative committee announced that it will be prosecuting Khan for "criminal prosecution of a person known to be innocent".
