It is Not True that the Prosecutor Who Charged Putin Was Found Dead
Photo: The Seat of the International Criminal Court in The Hague Photo: en.wikipedia.org
No information was published by any media outlet about the alleged death of the International Criminal Court Prosecutor, Karim Khan, nor did the International Criminal Court publish anything of the kind. If this were true, such a piece of information would not have gone unnoticed. On the contrary, all media would have published the news. Therefore, the post spreading on Facebook, with no evidence or confirmation whatsoever, seems deliberately created
Post on the social network Facebook (screenshot here) claims that the Public Prosecutor of the case against Vladimir Putin was found dead. This information is not true.
BQQQM! THE PUBLIC PROSECUTOR OF THE CASE AGAINST PUTIN WAS FOUND DEAD IN HIS FLAT YESTERDAY, AROUND 02:00. WHAT A SHAME! DID NOT GET TO SEE PUTIN ARRESTED. WASN’T THAT LUCKY, states the post.
A week ago, the International Criminal Court (ICC) from The Hague issued a warrant for the arrest of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, who is accused of war crimes for the deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories in Russia. The Court also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russian human rights commissioner. She is also accused of war crimes connected with the deportation of children from Ukraine.
Although the post does not state explicitly the offense, it is quite clear that the act concerned is the case opened by the Court in the Hague because that is the only ongoing international investigation against Putin. The Court stated that it was acting upon the request of Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, while the post subject of this fact-check claims that he was found dead in his flat a few days ago, which is not true.
\The International Criminal Court Prosecutor, Karim Khan, was not found dead in his flat, nor anywhere else. There is no information about his alleged death in any medium, nor is there an announcement by the International Criminal Court about such a thing. If this were true, it would have been published in all media, which is not the case. Hence, such an information, unsubstantiated with evidence, seems like deliberately created.
Court’s statement of concern was published yesterday, following the threat of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he will strike the Court for war crimes with supersonic missiles. In addition, the highest Russian investigative body opened a case against Prosecutor Karim Khan as well as against the judges who issued the warrant against Putin.
The Presidency of the ICC Assembly of States informed that it:
Regrets these attempts to hinder international efforts to ensure accountibility for acts that are prohibited under general international law.
In February 2021, British lawyer Karim Khan was elected next Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, one of the toughest jobs in international law, because the Tribunal seeks justice for the world’s worst atrocities – war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
Khan, who is an international criminal law and international human rights specialist, led a UN-team for investigating the allegations of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Islamic State group in Iraq and had the rank of a UN Assistant Secretary-General before becoming the Prosecutor. He worked as a prosecutor at the Tribunal prosecuting war crimes in former Yugoslavia and crimes against humanity and genocide in Rwanda.
From all of the above-noted facts, we can conclude that the claim that the Prosecutor in charge of the case against the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, was found dead is not true. This information was created for the purpose of manipulating the users of social networks.
This article was produced within the framework of the project “Promoting Access to Reliable News to Counter Disinformation”, implemented by the Metamorphosis Foundation. The article, which has been published on the Macedonian-language version of Truthmeter, was produced with the support of the American non-profit foundation NED (National Endowment for Democracy). The contents of the article is the responsibility of the author and do not always reflect the positions of Metamorphosis Foundation, NED or their partners.
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