Overview
- A Moscow court found Italian ICC judge Salvatore Aitala and eight other ICC judges guilty in absentia and issued 15-year sentences on charges including persecuting innocents and attempted violence against protected persons.
- All nine judges were added to Russia’s international wanted list, and potential extradition requests are viewed as unlikely to be honored.
- Those named include former ICC president Petr Józef Hofmański, current president Tomoko Akane, and vice president Reine Alapini-Gansou, along with Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godínez, Haikel Ben Mahfoud, Carranza Luz del Carmen Ibáñez, and Bertram Schmitt.
- Italy’s National Magistrates Association urged the government to seek immediate explanations from Moscow over Aitala’s conviction.
- The case follows the ICC’s 2023 warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, which the Kremlin has declared “null,” and the ICC had not issued an immediate comment in the cited coverage.