MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd June, 2023) Rosario Salvatore Aitala, a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) who had issued a warrant for the "arrest" of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has appeared in the database of wanted people of the Russian Interior Ministry, the database showed on Thursday.
"Basis for the search: wanted under an article of the Criminal Code," the wanted list in the database said.
A picture of Aitala with the caption "wanted" appeared at a stand near the Sviblovo District Department of the Internal Ministry in Moscow.
On March 2, 2022, the Office of the ICC Prosecutor, the jurisdiction of which is not recognized by Russia, started investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. On March 11, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said an investigative team had started gathering evidence. The Pre-Trial Chamber II of the ICC issued on March 17 a warrant for the "arrest" of Putin and Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, citing "unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."
The Russian Investigative Committee initiated on March 20 proceedings against the prosecutor and judges of the ICC.
In mid-May, the Russian Investigative Committee said it filed charges in absentia against Khan and Aitala, including bringing criminal proceedings against a person known to be innocent, combined with unlawfully charging a person with a particularly serious offense, and preparing to attack a representative of a foreign state enjoying international protection, with the aim of complicating international relations.
