Just days after the United States government revoked the visa of the Internation...
AMSTERDAM - Just days after the United States government revoked the visa of the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, ICC judges rejected her request to open an investigation into alleged atrocities in the war in Afghanistan, citing practical reasons.
In an unusual ruling, judges said Bensouda’s case seemed to have met the court’s criteria for jurisdiction and admissibility, but given an array of practical considerations that made chances of success remote, it did not make sense to pursue it further. “An investigation into the situation in Afghanistan at this stage would not serve the interests of justice and accordingly rejects the request,” the judges said.International legal experts saw the ruling in part as a recognition of the realities the court faces in conducting prosecutions.The decision “is insane and politically charged,” Karine Bonneau of the International Federation for Human Rights said in a tweet. She added the ruling was “an affirmation of double standards.
The United States revoked Bensouda’s entry visa earlier this month, after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in March that Washington would withdraw or deny visas to any ICC staff investigating possible war crimes by U.S. forces or allies in Afghanistan. U.S.-backed forces drove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in 2001 at the start of a war that has dragged on for 17 years.“We the Afghan people have suffered so much and the court was a last hope for all of us in a country which is completely lacking justice,” Hadi Marifat of the human rights group AHRDO told Reuters.FILE PHOTO: Public Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda attends the trial of Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda at the ICC in the Hague, the Netherlands August 28, 2018.
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