Article 51(4) of the Rome Statute: The Rules of Procedure and Evidence, amendments thereto and any provisional Rule shall be consistent with this Statute. Article 63(1) of the Rome Statute: The accused shall be present during the trial. New Rule 134ter of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence: An accused subject to a summons to appear may submit a written request to the Trial Chamber...
According to the Washington Post, the Department of Justice has essentially decided against trying to prosecute Julian Assange for publishing the Chelsea Manning documents: The officials stressed that a formal decision has not been made, and a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks remains impaneled, but they said there is little possibility of bringing a case against Assange, unless he is implicated in...
The ICC has announced that four individuals associated with the Bemba case, including Bemba's lead counsel and case manager, have been arrested on suspicion of witness tampering and manufacturing evidence: On 23 and 24 November 2013, the authorities of the Netherlands, France, Belgium and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) acting pursuant to a warrant of arrest issued by Judge...
A few days ago, in response to reports of an imminent deal between P5+1 and Iran concerning Iran's uranium enrichment, Tyler Cullis and Ryan Goodman debated whether Iran has a "right" to develop nuclear power for civilian purposes. Tyler argued that Iran does, citing (inter alia) Art. IV of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT): Nothing in this Treaty...
A couple of days ago, I blogged about proposals that will soon be debated at the ICC's Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to excuse Kenyatta and Ruto from having to be physically present at trial. Colum Lynch has kindly posted the text of the two proposals, both of which would amend Rule 134 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence (RPE)....
As Mark Kersten discusses today at Justice in Conflict, one of the reasons the Security Council rejected Kenya's request to defer the Kenyatta and Ruto prosecutions is that it believes the issue of their presence at trial is better addressed by the Assembly of States Parties. Here is how Mark summarizes what could happen at the ASP: At this year’s ASP,...
A couple of weeks ago, Mother Jones blogger Kevin Drum said he was surprised that Syria has, by all accounts, voluntarily given up its chemical-weapons capability: I don't really have any comment about this, except to express a bit of puzzlement. As near as I can tell, Bashar al-Assad is really and truly sincere about destroying his chemical weapons stocks.1 But why?...
I am delighted to announce the publication of a new book that I co-edited with my colleague and dear friend Gerry Simpson, The Hidden Histories of War Crimes Trials. As the title indicates, the book contains a number of essays that discuss little-known trials (such as the Franco-Siamese Mixed Court) or re-narrate better known but misunderstood trials (such as the...
In my previous post, I mocked Scotland Yard's assertion that David Miranda, Glenn Greenwald's partner, committed an act of terrorism by transporting documents stolen from the US government by Edward Snowden. Mockery remains the appropriate response, given the vast chasm that separates Miranda's actions from any defensible conception of terrorism -- such as the one I quoted from UN General...
No, not actual terrorism, "[c]riminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons, or particular persons for political purposes." That's still going strong. I'm talking about the concept of terrorism, which has officially lost all meaning whatsoever: British authorities claimed the domestic partner of reporter Glenn Greenwald was involved in "terrorism" when he tried to...
The ICC's Public Affairs Unit has brought to my attention that the Sudan Tribune erroneously reported what Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji said to Ruto concerning his public statements about his case. The unofficial transcript makes clear that although the Judge warned Ruto not to make additional statements, he did not suggest that Ruto would be arrested if he did so: 7 It has...
The most significant problem with the Order, of course, is the one I identified in my previous post: namely, that Rule 15bis applies only to "part heard" cases -- not cases that have been over for nearly two years. But it's worth noting that the Acting President has also disregarded a number of procedural requirements of Rule 15bis. Recall the...
