28 Apr How to Get Your ICC Arrest Warrants Enforced: Threaten More Arrest Warrants
In a curious strategic move, the ICC is threatening to issue more arrest warrants against Sudanese government officials in order to get their original arrest warrants enforced.
Luis Moreno Ocampo told Reuters in an interview he planned to present evidence against new suspects to ICC judges before the end of the year if Khartoum does not hand over two suspects by the time he reports to the U.N. Security Council on June 5.
I doubt this will change the situation much, if at all. If the Sudanese government is going to ignore the arrest warrants, these new ones are unlikely to mean anything. The real question is whether the Security Council will do anything meaningful after the ICC’s June 5 report to pressure Sudan. If not, I think the ICC can issue as many warrants as it wants, nothing is going to happen.
The bigger issue here is that Ocampo seems to be admitting that ICC indictments are politically-motivated.
Either Ocampo has evidence to charge more Sudanese officials or he does not, but whether he moves forward should be determined by the evidence, not on the effect the indictments will have on Sudan’s government. Ocampo is just making Sudan’s case against the ICC with statements like this.
My humble opinion is that non-cooperation with ICC and SC’s Resolution constitutes an evidence of itself. The important thing to realize is that one of the two convicted is a member of the government itself.
Given that Sudan hasn’t ratified the Rome Statute, I think they have excellent grounds for rejecting any and all warrants, and as such, the rejection does not reflect evidence of guilt by itself.