I have now had the opportunity to read both Judge van den Wyngaert's request to be excused from the Kenyatta case and the Presidency's decision to grant that request. There is no question that workload did indeed play a role in the Judge's decision to withdraw. But it also seems clear that there was at least one other reason, as...
I cannot find the relevant document on the ICC website, but Kenya's CapitalFM is reporting that Judge Christine van den Wyngaert, sitting in the Trial Chamber, has withdrawn from the case against Uhuru Kenyatta because of concerns about the prosecution's behavior: In her opinion the prosecution failed to disclose to the Pre-Trial Chamber on the credibility of witness four and disclosing new...
The Pre-Trial Chamber has granted the OPCD's request to withdraw from the case and has appointed the OPCD's chosen replacement, John RWD Jones QC, to represent Saif until such time as he is either able to choose his own lawyer or the ICC finally rules on Libya's admissibility challenge. Jones is a fantastic choice -- he successfully represented both Oric...
Omar al-Bashir, the President of Sudan, visited Chad earlier this year. The Chadian government made no attempt to arrest him, despite the fact that -- as a member of the ICC -- both SC Res. 1593 (the Darfur referral) and the Rome Statute obligated it to cooperate with the Court's arrest warrant. Human rights groups criticized Chad's unwillingness to arrest...
Ben Emmerson, counsel for al-Senussi, has asked the Pre-Trial Chamber to refer Libya to the Security Council for ignoring its February 6 decision ordering Libya to transfer al-Senussi to the Court. Here are the key paragraphs: 3. It has been almost six weeks since the Chamber‟s Order of 6 February, and Libya has failed to comply with every one of these...
Libya has filed yet another brief concerning the admissibility of the case against Saif Gaddafi. The new brief is more than 50 pages long, so it's going to take some time to digest. But we really don't have to go beyond pages 22-24, because Libya's admissions in those paragraphs doom -- or at least should doom, if the Pre-Trial Chamber...
The win in question concerns the privileged documents the Libyan government seized from Melinda Taylor and her OPCD colleagues while they were meeting with Saif Gaddafi in Libya. In late January, the OPCD asked the Pre-Trial Chamber to order Libya to return the documents and destroy any copies it had made of them. Here is what it argued, as summarized...
That may seem like a ridiculous question. After all, Libya is doing everything in its power to prosecute Saif domestically -- and he is facing a variety of charges that carry the death penalty. But consider the text of Art. 17(2), the "unwillingness" prong of the the admissibility test: In order to determine unwillingness in a particular case, the Court shall...
As I have explained before, Libya's admissibility challenge must fail if it cannot ensure that the militia in Zintan who have Saif custody will transfer him to the government to stand trial, because Art. 17(3) of the Rome Statute deems a state "unable" to prosecute if, "due to a total or substantial collapse or unavailability of its national judicial system, the...
Last May, I offered some critical thoughts on Opinio Juris about Charles Taylor's 50-year sentence at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. I have just finished a short essay (8,000 words) on Taylor's sentence that will appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of International Criminal Justice; you can find the essay on SSRN. Here is the introduction: On 30 May...
The OTP has weighed in on Libya's ongoing challenge to the admissibility of the case against Saif Gaddafi. In its view, although there are serious questions concerning whether Libya is investigating the same conduct as the OTP, Libya is currently willing and able to conduct a genuine prosecution. Unfortunately, its conclusion regarding ability rests on a very serious legal error....
In doing research on Aung San Suu Kyi, I recently came across this wonderful discussion from 2005 on the role of the intellectual in society. It comes in the form of a dialogue with Alan Clements in his book, The Voice of Hope: Aung San Suu Kyi: Conversations with Alan Clements. Clements: I brought with me a...
