15 years for a warrant. Moscow court sentences International Criminal Court leadership to prison in absentia for “illegal prosecution” of Vladimir Putin

The Moscow City Court has announced the sentencing of eight judges and the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The court handed down prison terms ranging up to 15 years for their role in issuing an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin.

The ICC officials were found guilty of “bringing a knowingly innocent person to criminal liability,” “knowingly illegal detention” and “the preparation... of an attack on a representative of a foreign state... for the purpose of provoking war or complicating international relations.” The last charge effectively equates the legal prosecution of Vladimir Putin with an act of war.

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in a penal colony. The other defendants—eight ICC judges and officials, including the court’s current president, Tomoko Akane—received sentences ranging from three and a half to 15 years.

In its statement, the Prosecutor Genera’s Office asserted that in February and March of 2022, Prosecutor Khan “illegally held citizens of the Russian Federation criminally liable,” while the court’s presidium “issued instructions to issue knowingly illegal warrants for their arrest.”

While the press release did not explicitly name the “Russian citizens” in question, the Investigative Committee had previously confirmed that the case against the ICC leadership was opened specifically in retaliation for the arrest warrants issued for President Vladimir Putin and Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova.

In March 2023, the court alleged Putin and Lvova-Belova bear responsibility for the war crime of unlawfully deporting and transferring Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia. Russia, which signed but never ratified the Rome Statute, insists it is not under the ICC’s jurisdiction and has dismissed the warrants as null and void.

Since the warrant was issued, Vladimir Putin has limited his travel to countries friendly to the Kremlin. He then defied the court in September 2024 by visiting Mongolia, a state party to the Rome Statute. Mongolia’s refusal to arrest Putin led to a formal “Non-Cooperation Finding” by the ICC, which referred the matter to the Assembly of States Parties.

This sentencing marks the conclusion of an investigation that Russian authorities announced was “completed” just last month, when the nine officials were formally placed on Russia’s international wanted list.