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...
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 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,...
[Dr. Paul R. Williams is the Rebecca I. Grazier Professor of Law and International Relations at American University and the co-founder and President of the Public International Law & Policy Group and Roushani Mansoor is a former Fulbright-Clinton Fellow who worked in Dhaka, Bangladesh as a Special Legal Assistant for the Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs (on issues unrelated to the Tribunal). She is currently a Law Fellow at the Public International Law & Policy Group.]
Cheers met the first verdict of the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh, which sentenced Abul Kalam Azad to death in absentia. Less than a month later, shouts of “ami, tumi, Bangalee, Bangalee” – meaning “me, you, Bengali, Bengali” – echoed in the streets of Dhaka in reply to another, less popular Tribunal verdict. The Tribunal had handed down a life sentence to Abdul Qader Molla, a punishment many Bangladeshis felt did not match the severity of Qader Molla’s crimes. The Tribunal, mandated to try alleged war criminals from the 1971 Liberation War, aimed to bring closure to Bangladesh’s bloody birth. These moments were not just responses to justice served, but demonstrated a transformation in the Bangladeshi national identity – a transformation in which the Tribunal, as a mechanism of justice, is playing a crucial part.
The Liberation War pitted Bengali Freedom Fighters against the Pakistani Army and local collaborators from anti-liberation groups. These collaborators aided the Pakistani Army, executing attacks and massacring villagers. The nine-month war secured independence for Bangladesh, but at a huge cost. Estimates range from 300,000 to 3,000,000 killed often in gruesome ways; countless more were tortured. Over 200,000 women were subject to rape, and as many as 10 million fled their homes towards India to escape the violence. Over forty years later, the Tribunal operates as a domestic exercise of justice aimed at trying atrocities committed during the war. It strives to erase the attitude of impunity and deliver justice – however delayed – to victims and victims’ families still healing from horrific conflict.
The Liberation War fought for the independence of Bangladesh, and a brand new Bangladeshi national identity was born out of this conflict, largely grounded in this struggle. The generations who lived through the Liberation War had to fight and sacrifice for their national identity but they earned the right to call themselves Bangladeshi. Generations born after the war are certain they are Bangladeshi – it is their birthright. These generations, however, are struggling with the meaning of being Bangladeshi. They are undergoing their own fight for a national identity, one that is predominately based on a war they did not witness.
The one war-related relic these generations have to hold onto is the Tribunal. As a legacy of that liberation struggle, the Tribunal has been intrinsically intertwined with the Bangladeshi national identity. Demand for the creation of the Tribunal began immediately after the Liberation War, and legislation creating the Tribunal was passed in 1973. Subsequent natural disasters, political assassinations, and military coups in Bangladesh prevented the government from actually constituting the Tribunal. However, popular support for the Tribunal did not waver. The hope for a Tribunal was given new life during the 2008 elections where the Awami League campaigned on the promise that if elected, it would constitute the Tribunal during its term. Winning an absolute majority in Parliament, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina vowed to constitute the Tribunal and bring closure to the bloody birth of Bangladesh after over 40 years of waiting.
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?...
[James G. Stewart is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia Law Faculty. Until recently, he was on the board of the Conflict Awareness Project, but had no role in this investigation.] Something momentus happened in Switzerland last week—national prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into one of the world’s leading gold refineries, for pillaging Congolese natural recourses. Pillage, of...
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...
