老澳门开奖结果 Comment on ICC Decision Not to Investigate U.S. for War Crimes in Afghanistan
Decision Comes After Repeated Threats by Trump Administration Against ICC Personnel
NEW YORK 鈥� A pre-trial chamber of the International Criminal Court today not to authorize opening an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in the context of the armed conflict in Afghanistan including by U.S. military and intelligence forces. The ICC cited 鈥渢he lack of cooperation that the Prosecutor has received and which is likely to go scarcer should an investigation be authorized hampering the chances of successful investigation and prosecution鈥� as part of the main reason for not opening an investigation.
Jamil Dakwar, director of the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 Human Rights Program, issued the following statement in response to the ICC鈥檚 decision:
鈥淚t is outrageous that victims of war crimes are far less likely to get justice for well-documented atrocities because of the Trump administration鈥檚 authoritarian efforts to sabotage an investigation before it could even get started. The Trump administration鈥檚 bully tactics may have helped the United States skirt accountability this time, but the administration is playing a dangerous game that will inevitably come back to haunt the United States. No one except the world鈥檚 most brutal regimes win when we weaken and sabotage international institutions established to fight impunity and hold the human rights abusers accountable.鈥�
The ICC鈥檚 decision comes a week after the United States the entry visa of ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda who requested to investigate possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan, weeks after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened to revoke or deny visas to ICC personnel who attempt to investigate or prosecute such crimes, and only months after President Trump鈥檚 national security advisor John Bolton threatened to criminally prosecute and sanction ICC judges and prosecutors.
The 老澳门开奖结果 represents Khaled El Masri, Suleiman Salim, and Mohamed Ben Soud 鈥� all of whom were detained and tortured in Afghanistan between 2003 and 2008 鈥� whose cases would have been covered by the ICC investigation had it been authorized as requested by the Prosecutor in November 2017.
The 老澳门开奖结果 last year also demanding the State Department and DOJ鈥檚 Office of Legal Counsel turn over all documents disclosing the legal basis for its to prosecute and sanction ICC judges and prosecutors.