A Moscow court has issued an arrest warrant for International Criminal Court (ICC) Judge Haykel Ben Mahfoudh on a charge of "illegal incarceration."
The court said on November 11 that the charge stemmed from the ICC's issuance of arrest warrants for former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and armed forces' Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.
Mahfoudh and his ICC colleagues, Rosario Salvatore Aitala and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez, issued the arrest warrants for Shoigu and Gerasimov in late June for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine after the start of Russia's unprovoked invasion of its neighbor in 2022.
According to the ICC judges, Shoigu and Gerasimov were responsible for Russian missile strikes conducted between October 2022 and at least March 9, 2023, against Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
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The ICC statement issued at the time said that "the expected incidental civilian harm and damage would have been clearly excessive to the anticipated military advantage" for those who ordered the strikes.
Shoigu was dismissed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in May. He now heads Putin's Security Council.
Earlier last year, Russian authorities added Aitala, along with ICC Judge Tomoko Akane and Prosecutor Karim Khan to their wanted list after they issued arrest warrants in March 2023 for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's children's commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, for being responsible for the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia following the invasion -- a war crime under international legislation.
Russia retaliated by opening criminal cases against the ICC officials.
The ICC does not have the means to enforce its arrest warrants but relies instead on the judiciaries of its 124 members to fulfill them.