Libyan ICC war crimes suspect arrested in Germany
In addition to the sanctions, the ICC is also operating without its chief prosecutor Karim Khan, who stepped aside temporarily two months ago as he faced a probe by United Nations investigators into alleged sexual misconduct.
Khan denies the allegations, and his two deputy prosecutors are running the office in his absence.
In a statement on Friday, the office of the prosecutor said it expected Al Hishri to be transferred to The Hague and added that it stood ready to start his trial.
"This development is so needed at a time of unprecedented turmoil in the field of accountability generally and at the ICC specifically," Kip Hale, an attorney who documented crimes in Libya for the UN, told Reuters.
"Yet, it is most important for the victims of the many atrocity crimes committed at Mitiga prison."
Italy arrested another Libyan ICC suspect, Osama Elmasry Njeem, in January but subsequently returned him to Tripoli, saying the arrest warrant contained mistakes and inaccuracies. He was also accused of crimes committed against detainees in Mitiga prison.
His release sparked outrage among Italian opposition parties and triggered a legal investigation into Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and several other government members.
The court has been investigating allegations of serious crimes committed in Libya since the outbreak of its civil war in 2011, following a referral by the UN Security Council
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Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading However, the DA revealed that the US government denied Jonas a diplomatic visa in May and informed the Presidency that he would not be recognised as South Africa's official interlocutor. Jonas and Rasool are both seen as Trump's adversaries after they criticised him on two different occasions. In mid-March 2025, the Trump administration expelled Rasool as South Africa's ambassador to the US, following his critical comments about the US government during a webinar. Rasool had characterised the "Make America Great Again" movement as partly a reaction to "a supremacist instinct" and anticipated demographic changes in the US, specifically the projected decline of the white population to minority status. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly denounced Rasool as a "race-baiting politician who hates America" and declared him persona non grata. 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