Search: Complementarity SAIF GADDAFI

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has appeared in a court for the first time since his capture last year, in the western town of Zintan, where he is facing charges related to a visit by an ICC lawyer last year. Jurist has more here. US and ECOWAS troops will support France’s mission in Mali. Armed Groups in International Law has an insightful post on the French intervention in Mali and Additional Protocol II. African Union peacekeepers trying to dislodge Islamist rebels from Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region shot dead at least seven civilians...

...Beijing had called off human rights talks. Japan and Australia have clinched a bilateral trade deal. Middle East and Northern Africa The trials have begun in Tripoli against Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and his younger brother, Saadi, on charges including murder and plundering state coffers. Their co-accused include the former intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senussi and former prime ministers, al-Baghdadi al-Mahmudi and Bouzid Dorda. Israel is holding secret talks with some Arab states that do not recognize it, looking to establish diplomatic ties based on a common fear of Iran according Israeli...

...also strange that SOAS would simply replace the original examiners with new ones after two “not pass” results and a subsequent allegation of bias. Why would a student who failed to correct his dissertation twice be given a third bite of the apple with different examiners? Page is hardly the first student to allege bias when he received a failing mark — and it’s not like he’s Saif Gaddafi or anything. Something is seriously wrong here. SOAS is a world-class university with very high academic standards — one I’m proud...

I had the privilege last week of speaking in London at a superb Chatham House/Doughty St. Chambers symposium on the ICTY’s recent high-profile acquittals in Perisic, Gotovina, and others. My co-panelists were John Jones, QC, Saif Gaddafi’s ICC-appointed lawyer, and Elies van Sliedregt, the Dean of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Chatham House’s Elizabeth Wilmshurst was the moderator. I don’t believe the symposium was recorded, so I thought I would post the detailed outline of my remarks. My talk was, not surprisingly, a defence of Perisic‘s specific-direction requirement; it developed and systematized...

This week on Opinio Juris, Julian noticed the apparent truce between the American right and the ICC, but didn’t go as far as calling it peace. Further on the ICC, Kevin pointed out a flagrant mistake at the Washington Times, and argued that the OTP was wrong in concluding that Libya is able to try Saif Gaddafi, because the Rome Statute does not consider a trial in absentia to meet that standard. Talking about criminal prosecutions, Peggy asked whether Pope Benedict XVI could be sued in the child sex abuse...

Libya will challenge the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over Saif al-Islam Gaddafi in order to try him on Libyan soil. Mark Kersten at Justice in Conflict has more analysis about the battle of where the trial will be held. Police in Sierra Leone have arrested an investigator employed by former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s defense team on charges he attempted to bribe prosecution witnesses to recant their testimony during Taylor’s war crimes trial. Nigerian soldiers have shot more than 30 civilians dead in the northeastern Nigerian city of...

The Falkland Islands are set to hold a referendum about sovereignty. IntLawGrrls points to interesting issues arising around citizenship and globalization. The ICC Prosecutor seeks a 30-year sentence for Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, convicted of conscripting child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In other ICC news, a team from the Court has visited the four detained staff members in Libya, accused of smuggling documents to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has transferred its fifth case to domestic authorities. The UN Security Council has passed...

...say, has one of the world’s best international-law practices. (And excels in many other areas, such as criminal law.) Its roster of barristers includes such luminaries as: Geoffrey Robertson QC — one of the founders of the set, who needs no introduction to OJ readers. Sir Keir Starmer, KCB, QC — the former Director of Public Prosecutions and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service, currently serving as Croatia’s counsel at the ICJ in Croatia v Serbia. John R.W.D. Jones QC — counsel for Saif Gaddafi at the ICC and Mustafa...

...the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber’s decision that article 95 of the ICC Statute applies to requests for surrender, and it was not only because they did not agree with him on this point. Later in the week, he was more positive about the OTP’s response to Libya’s challenge to the admissibility of the cases against Saif Gaddafi and Abdullah al-Senussi. Further on international criminal law issues, Marina Aksenova argued in a guest post why Charles Taylor’s sentence is adequate. Kevin congratulated the Chief International Co-Prosecutor of the ECCC, Andrew Cayley, on...

...Mohamed Badie, and confirmed the death sentences of 37 of 529 alleged supporters previously condemned. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad declared he will seek re-election in June, defying calls from his opponents to step aside and allow a political solution to the devastating civil war stemming from protests against his rule. US Secretary of State John Kerry has said that Israel risks becoming “an apartheid state” if there is no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and dozens of former government officials have appeared in a Tripoli court...

This is a major development, one that I hope does not get lost in the welter of commentary on the Bemba acquittal. If you recall, in June 2012 the Libyan government detained four ICC officials who were in Zintan on official Court business: Melinda Taylor from the Office of Public Counsel for the Defence (OPCD), who had been provisionally appointed Saif Gaddafi’s defence counsel; two officials from the Registry; and a translator, Helene Assaf. Libya charged all four with various criminal offences and ultimately detained them for 27 days. About...

...European Parliament has included the punk band on its list of finalists for the annual Sakharov human rights prize. Scotland will hold an independence referendum in 2014, according to a British government minister, whereas Spain’s parliament voted yesterday to block Catalonia’s bid for sovereignty. Russia has signed a $4.2 billion arms deal with Iraq, making it the largest arms provider to the Middle East after the United States. Libyan government lawyers promised yesterday at a hearing at the ICC that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi will get a fair trial in Libya....