On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Soon after, Kremlin actors linked the warrant to the release of Imran Ahmad Khan, the brother of Karim Khan, an International Criminal Court prosecutor. Imran Ahmad Khan was serving a sentence for sexually harassing a teenager.
On March 18, 2023, the former MP of the Russian Duma and political scientist, Sergei Markov, wrote on his Telegram channel that Karim Khan issued the warrant for Putin’s arrest in exchange for his brother’s early release from prison. According to Markov, by issuing the arrest warrant, the “secret society of pedophiles” is trying to take revenge on Putin for his anti-LGBT propaganda and anti-paedophilia policy.
The editor-in-chief of the Kremlin propaganda publication “Regnum,” Stanislav Stremidlovsky, and the former editor-in-chief of “Regnum”, Yuriy Baranchik, connected the release of Imran Ahmad with the issuance of the arrest warrant for Putin. It is worth noting that Baranchik’s post was shared on her Telegram channel by the spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova. She accused the West of depravity and moral ugliness – while portraying Russia as the protector of children.
Zakharova: I confirm everything is correct. Brother is a paedophile. As I said yesterday, now the protection of children from perverts is criminalized in the West. Can you imagine how many innocent children’s souls would be ruined by moral freaks, like this brother? But Russia does not. There was already a line for these kids, for sure.”
The comments of Markov, Stremidlovsky, Branchik and Zakharova were also covered by the Kremlin media (1,2,3). Posts accusing Karim Khan of issuing an arrest warrant for Putin in exchange for his brother’s release were also shared by Russian- and Georgian-speaking social media users (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10).
The claim that Karim Khan issued the warrant for Putin’s arrest in exchange for his brother’s release from prison is disinformation. Under British law, it was known immediately after Imran Ahmad Khan was sentenced to 18 months in prison that he would be released on parole after nine months. In addition, procedurally, the arrest warrant is not issued by the prosecutor but by the court.
Prosecutor Karim Khan submitted an application to Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court for warrants of arrest in the context of the Situation in Ukraine.
On March 17, the Pre-Trial Chamber issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of Russia. According to Khan’s statement, the court considered that there are sufficient grounds to suspect that Putin and Lvova-Belova are responsible for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia. Procedurally, the arrest warrant was issued by the Chamber of the International Criminal Court, not by Prosecutor Karim Khan.
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The Case of Imran Ahmad Khan
Imran Ahmad Khan, brother of ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, was released from prison on February 21, 2023. Imran Ahmad Khan was a member of the UK’s Conservative Party. In 2019, he was elected to the House of Commons. According to the BBC, an unnamed person who reported sexual abuse of a teenager by Khan first contacted the Conservative Party during the 2019 election period and the police after Khan was elected to parliament. The investigation also started during this period. In the spring of 2022, a court found him guilty of sexually harassing a 15-year-old boy in 2008. Khan pleaded not guilty. After being found guilty, Khan was expelled from the Conservative Party. He also left the position of the MP. It should be noted that before the start of the trial, Imran Ahmad Khan tried to conduct the trial anonymously and closed to the public. According to Khan, given his position, releasing his name could endanger him. Khan also sought to withhold the victim’s age, but both requests were denied. The Chief Magistrate at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Paul Goldspring, said that reputational damage was not a sufficient basis for these claims and that open justice was a cornerstone of democracy and the rule of law.
Imran Ahmad Khan was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. Under British law, when the sentence is less than two years, the offender is released on parole after serving half of the sentence. After parole, in case of any violation, the convict will be returned to prison. After serving a sentence, the convict is under observation for a certain period. In the case of Imran Ahmad Khan, he spent nine months of his 18-month sentence in prison, and for the next nine months, he will be on parole, after which he will spend three months under supervision. Khan’s 9-month prison term expired in February, which was stipulated immediately after the verdict. Accordingly, his release has nothing to do with issuing the arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. In addition, the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court includes the trial of those accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression (use of military force against a sovereign state). The International Criminal Court is an additional instrument of justice and cannot replace or interfere with national judicial systems.
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