The Moscow court issues arrest warrants for ICC judges involved in cases related to Russia

A Moscow court ordered the arrest in absentia of Reine Alapini-Gansou, the second vice president of the International Criminal Court (ICC), independent news outlet Mediazona reported on November 13.

The case against Alapini-Gansou was initiated under the article of ‘illegal detention’. Mediazona reports this without providing additional details. She has also been placed on the wanted list, the court told the Interfax news agency.

Russia has used it extensively legal matters to pressure and intimidate ICC judges since the court in The Hague issued an injunction arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and official Maria Lvova-Belova in March 2023 about the forced deportation of Ukrainian children.

Alapini-Gansou, a Beninese lawyer with extensive experience in women’s rights and human rights advocacy, was elected to the ICC in 2018. Earlier this year, she became deputy to ICC President Tomoko Akane, who issued the arrest warrant for Putin in March. 2023. Russia opened an investigation into Akane and other judges shortly afterwards.

The arrest warrant against Alapini-Gansouwho was one of the judges who issued arrest warrants against him Moscow’s proxies in South Ossetia for alleged war crimes during the 2008 war in Georgia, comes just days after a Russian arrest warrant against another ICC judge, Haykel Ben Mahfoudh.

Ben Mahfoudh was a member of a panel that a arrest warrant for former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov on suspected war crimes in Ukraine.

The Tunisian lawyer and specialist in international law was elected to the ICC in March 2024 for a nine-year term.

The ICC also issued this in March arrest warrants for two Russian military commanders for carrying out strikes on Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure during the winter of 2022-2023.

Lieutenant General Sergei Kobylash and Admiral Viktor Sokolov “are each allegedly responsible” for a number of war crimes, including “directing attacks on civilian locations,” the court said.