Latest news with #OfficeoftheProsecutoroftheInternationalCriminalCourt
Libya Review
10-08-2025
- Politics
- Libya Review
ICC Calls for Cooperation to Arrest Libyan War Crimes Suspect
The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has welcomed a decision by Pre-Trial Chamber I to grant its request to lift the confidentiality of an arrest warrant for suspect Seif Suleiman Sneidl, accused of committing war crimes in eastern Libya. According to Prosecutor Karim Khan, Sneidl is alleged to have participated in three executions between June 2016 and July 2017 in Benghazi and surrounding areas, which resulted in the deaths of a total of 23 people. The charges include wilful killing, outrages upon personal dignity, and torture, committed in the context of a non-international armed conflict. The arrest warrant was originally issued in November 2020, with the chamber finding reasonable grounds to believe Sneidl bore criminal responsibility for the executions and acts of torture. In July this year, the Prosecutor's Office requested that the warrant be unsealed to increase the likelihood of apprehension, citing changed circumstances. Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan said the unsealing decision would enhance prospects for arrest, allowing the ICC to engage more openly with states, the UN Security Council, and the wider international community to secure support and cooperation. The Office of the ICC Prosecutor urged Libyan authorities to execute the arrest warrant in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1970 (2011), which referred the Libya situation to the ICC. The Sneidl case falls under the ICC's investigative track into alleged crimes committed between 2014 and 2020, one of four main Libya-related investigations, alongside 2011 violence, crimes in detention facilities, and crimes against migrants. The Prosecutor reaffirmed that the Libya situation remains a 'priority' for the Court. Tags: icclibyaSeif SneidlWar Crimes
LeMonde
12-07-2025
- Politics
- LeMonde
The ICC petitions to end Russia's plundering of Ukrainian museums
The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) received a formal complaint on Friday, July 11, from the advocacy group For Ukraine, for Their Freedom and Ours!. The association called on the court to issue arrest warrants as soon as possible for Russian President Vladimir Putin and eight other top Russian officials, to put a stop to the plundering of Ukrainian museums – acts that international conventions recognize as war crimes. "Russia's aggression against Ukraine has resulted in the largest spoliation of cultural heritage in Europe during an international armed conflict since World War II," the group wrote in its complaint. "Since 2014, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been accompanied by a cultural war aimed at eradicating Ukrainian identity." The association asserted: "This spoliation is systematic, widespread and organized," and "planned at the highest levels of the Russian state." The Russian federal law of March 18, 2023, allowed for the "incorporation of collections from 77 Ukrainian museums into the catalogue of Russian museums" in the Moscow-controlled regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and in Crimea, annexed in 2014. According to Ukraine's Ministry of Culture, as of July 2024, fewer than 1.2 million museum pieces remained in Crimea, compared with 12 million before the invasion.
GMA Network
12-06-2025
- Politics
- GMA Network
ICC prosecutor asks tribunal to dismiss Duterte's challenge of jurisdiction
"Irrespective of the interpretation of articles 11 to 13, article 127(2) can only be correctly interpreted to preclude a withdrawing state party depriving the court of the exercise of its jurisdiction, if such a matter is already under consideration before the withdrawal becomes effective," the prosecution's submission dated June 10 and signed by deputy prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang. The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has asked the tribunal to dismiss former President Rodrigo Duterte's challenge to the ICC's jurisdiction over his case. Duterte is now detained in the The Hague Penitentiary on charges of crimes against humanity in connection with the killings under his war on drugs when he was mayor of Davao City and when he was president of the Philippines. "Irrespective of the interpretation of articles 11 to 13, article 127(2) can only be correctly interpreted to preclude a withdrawing state party depriving the court of the exercise of its jurisdiction, if such a matter is already under consideration before the withdrawal becomes effective," the prosecution's submission dated June 10 and signed by deputy prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang. "In this case, the prosecutor's initiation of a preliminary examination was sufficient for this purpose, both as a matter of law (given that a preliminary examination is a statutory proceeding, which is a precondition to opening an investigation) but in any event in the particular circumstances," it added. "For all the reasons above, the challenge should be dismissed, and the court's exercise of jurisdiction over Mr Duterte should be affirmed," the prosecution said. Article 127 (2) of the Rome Statute, which governs the ICC, reads, "A State shall not be discharged, by reason of its withdrawal, from the obligations arising from this Statute while it was a Party to the Statute, including any financial obligations which may have accrued." "Its withdrawal shall not affect any cooperation with the Court in connection with criminal investigations and proceedings in relation to which the withdrawing State had a duty to cooperate and which were commenced prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective, nor shall it prejudice in any way the continued consideration of any matter which was already under considerationby the Court prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective." According to Duterte's lawyers, the preconditions for the exercise of jurisdiction in the situation of the Philippines were not met at the time the pre-trial chamber authorized the opening of an investigation on September 15, 2021. "The Philippines' withdrawal from the Rome Statute became effective on 17 March 2019. When the former Prosecutor filed her request, and the pre-trial chamber issued its decision, more than two years later," Duterte's camp said in its submission. "As a consequence, all procedural steps taken in the Situation and, subsequently, in the case against Mr Rodrigo Roa Duterte, lack legal foundation and should be nullified forthwith," it added. The prosecution said that Duterte's defense said that the Rome Statute made the ICC's jurisdiction conditional not only on the Philippines' status as a state party when the alleged crimes were committed but also when the tribunal's exercise of jurisdiction was triggered according to Article 13(c) of the Statute. The defense added that Article 127(2) allowed the court to be deprived of jurisdiction by a withdrawal in the present circumstances. "The chamber should reject both defense arguments, which misinterpret the relevant provisions of the statute, and find that the court lawfully exercises jurisdiction over Mr. Duterte," the prosecution said. The ICC's Office of the Public Counsel for Victims has also asked the tribunal to dismiss former President Rodrigo Duterte's challenge regarding the tribunal's jurisdiction. advertisement ICC Principal Counsel Paolina Massida pointed out that the Philippines' withdrawal has no legal effect as the prosecutor's preliminary examination started even before the withdrawal took effect. 'The preliminary examination conducted by the Office of the Prosecutor in the Situation in the Republic of the Philippines must be considered as 'a matter' that was 'already under the consideration of the Court' prior to the date on which the State's withdrawal became effective and thus the Court may exercise its jurisdiction over the case against Mr Duterte,' according to the 27-page document dated June 9. –NB, GMA Integrated News
