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Karim Khan now new ICC chief prosecutor, to decide Israel’s fate
By YONAH JEREMY BOB
JUNE 16, 2021 16:15
Defence Counsel for Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto, Karim Khan attends a news conference before the trial of Ruto and Joshua arap Sang at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague September 9, 2013.
(photo credit: MICHAEL KOOREN / REUTERS)
When she ruled against Israel in March moving toward a full war crimes probe, she was acting as part of a group of internationalists who focus on getting justice for killed civilians.
Karim Khan has replaced Fatou Bensouda as the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor in a ceremony in The Hague on Wednesday after a nine-year term.
In Bensouda’s place, the British-Muslim international lawyer Khan will be left to determine Israel’s fate in the criminal probe which Bensouda opened in March.
Bensouda’s decision to open a full war crimes investigation against Israelis relating to the 2014 Gaza War, the settlement enterprise and the 2018 Gaza border conflict came after a six-year legal battle dating back to January 2015.
The outgoing chief prosecutor also threatened Israel and Hamas with new alleged war crimes during the May 10-21 Guardian of the Walls conflict with Gaza.
Still, Bensouda had strongly hinted at the possibility of her office eventually closing the probe against the IDF on the grounds that the Israeli military performs its own investigations of alleged war crimes, however imperfect.
There is much greater concern from Israeli lawyers about whether her office would go after the settlement enterprise.
Commentary is mixed about what to expect from Khan.
On one hand, he has past associations with Muslim human rights groups and Pakistani officials which would not tend to make him a fan of Israel.
On the other hand, he has made a number of public statements that the ICC is overextended and should only be fighting battles that it can win and has the resources to fight.
He has also defended both alleged war criminals from Kenya as well as represented victims of ISIS.
All of the ICC’s judges were present for the dramatic ceremony, which occurs only once every nine years, or attended virtually by zoom due to COVD health considerations.
ICC President Judge Piotr Hofmański and Assembly of State Parties Vice President Kateřina Sequensová extolled Khan’s wide-ranging accomplishments and qualifications.
In his acceptance speech, Khan bemoaned that as humanity makes amazing scientific progress to potentially able to travel in space to Mars, it still commits widespread genocide and crimes against humanity.
Transitioning to a more hopeful message, he said, “Tomorrow need not be as bleak, as sorrowful as yesterday” and expressed optimism that humanity can improve.
Khan said he was less concerned that the ICC itself would try war criminals than he was that war criminals be tried somewhere, even if in their home countries where they perpetrated their crimes.
The incoming prosecutor said he would correct gender imbalances favoring men in the office as well as that he would aggressively confront sexual harassment allegations against women surrounding the office.
Regarding ongoing cases, Khan said, "Requesting preliminary investigations is a start. But the proof in the pudding is in the eating. We have to perform in the trial...we cannot invest so much, raise expectations so high," while achieving so little so often in terms of convictions.
Bensouda herself is a Muslim coming from Gambia who sometimes wears traditional African-style garb, but is equally comfortable in modern western-style business clothing.
While one never knows what influence people’s backgrounds might have on a person’s view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - all indications to The Jerusalem Post during a 2016 visit and interview with Bensouda in The Hague were that it is not a major factor for her.
Rather, to the extent she ruled against Israel in March in moving toward a full war crimes probe, she was acting as part of a group of internationalists who focus on getting justice for killed civilians in conflict zones regardless of the context. If Bensouda has been hard on Israel, she is also being hard on the US and England, not to mention Russia and many African nations.
These internationalists tend to criticize Israel, the US and just about any country who uses force, not out of anti-Semetism or anti-Americanism per se. Instead, it may come more from a view that the world would be more peaceful if Israel and the US used less force.
This ideological group tends to downplay the role of terror and aggressive non-democratic countries in destabilizing and threatening Israel and other countries as something that simple dialogue can resolve.
In that spirit, Bensouda confirmed to the Post in 2016 that her office had taken the position that judging whether opening a full war crimes investigation is in the “interests of justice” is less focused on achieving peace or balance between the parties than it is on victims’ justice.
While victims’ justice is important, and very important in the ivory tower of philosophy, that kind of a focus often is ready to ignore the overall potential destabilizing impact of such prosecutions.
However, a recent decision Bensouda issued regarding the Philippines may provide Israel some hope.
Although Bensouda has moved to open a full criminal probe against the Philippines, she also issued her most pragmatic statement to date about potential limits on the probe in light of the ICC’s limited diplomatic support and resources.
Looking into the future, she wrote, “My term as Prosecutor will end shortly. Any authorized investigation in the Philippines will fall to my able successor, Mr Karim Khan, to take forward.”
“In this context, it is clear that how the Office, under his leadership, will set priorities concerning this investigation will need to take into account the operational challenges arising from the continuing pandemic, the severe limitations on the ICC’s available resources, and the Office’s current heavy work commitments,” she said.
Continuing, Bensouda said, “the Court today stands at a cross-roads in several concurrent situations, where the basis to proceed is legally and factually clear, but the operational means to do so are severely lacking. It is a situation that requires not only prioritization by the Office… but also open and frank discussions with the Assembly of States Parties, and other stakeholders of the Rome Statute system, on the real resource needs of the Court.”
“There is a serious mismatch between situations where the Rome Statute demands action by the Prosecutor and the resources made available to the Office,” she said.
Bensouda’s term was characterized by slow-moving cases, only around 10 convictions and criticism from all sides.
Some critics said she opened too many cases against African countries.
However, when she opened a case against the US, the Trump administration sanctioned her and some of her staff – also slamming The Hague for going after Israel.
The Biden administration removed the sanctions, but still criticized the ICC for pursuing the US as well as for pursuing Israel.
m.jpost.com
ahmadiyyafactcheckblog.com
@Indus Pakistan @Falcon29 @500 @DavidSling @Dariush the Great @sammuel @Beny Karachun @El Sidd
By YONAH JEREMY BOB
JUNE 16, 2021 16:15
Defence Counsel for Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto, Karim Khan attends a news conference before the trial of Ruto and Joshua arap Sang at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague September 9, 2013.
(photo credit: MICHAEL KOOREN / REUTERS)
When she ruled against Israel in March moving toward a full war crimes probe, she was acting as part of a group of internationalists who focus on getting justice for killed civilians.
Karim Khan has replaced Fatou Bensouda as the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor in a ceremony in The Hague on Wednesday after a nine-year term.
In Bensouda’s place, the British-Muslim international lawyer Khan will be left to determine Israel’s fate in the criminal probe which Bensouda opened in March.
Bensouda’s decision to open a full war crimes investigation against Israelis relating to the 2014 Gaza War, the settlement enterprise and the 2018 Gaza border conflict came after a six-year legal battle dating back to January 2015.
The outgoing chief prosecutor also threatened Israel and Hamas with new alleged war crimes during the May 10-21 Guardian of the Walls conflict with Gaza.
Still, Bensouda had strongly hinted at the possibility of her office eventually closing the probe against the IDF on the grounds that the Israeli military performs its own investigations of alleged war crimes, however imperfect.
There is much greater concern from Israeli lawyers about whether her office would go after the settlement enterprise.
Commentary is mixed about what to expect from Khan.
On one hand, he has past associations with Muslim human rights groups and Pakistani officials which would not tend to make him a fan of Israel.
On the other hand, he has made a number of public statements that the ICC is overextended and should only be fighting battles that it can win and has the resources to fight.
He has also defended both alleged war criminals from Kenya as well as represented victims of ISIS.
All of the ICC’s judges were present for the dramatic ceremony, which occurs only once every nine years, or attended virtually by zoom due to COVD health considerations.
ICC President Judge Piotr Hofmański and Assembly of State Parties Vice President Kateřina Sequensová extolled Khan’s wide-ranging accomplishments and qualifications.
In his acceptance speech, Khan bemoaned that as humanity makes amazing scientific progress to potentially able to travel in space to Mars, it still commits widespread genocide and crimes against humanity.
Transitioning to a more hopeful message, he said, “Tomorrow need not be as bleak, as sorrowful as yesterday” and expressed optimism that humanity can improve.
Khan said he was less concerned that the ICC itself would try war criminals than he was that war criminals be tried somewhere, even if in their home countries where they perpetrated their crimes.
The incoming prosecutor said he would correct gender imbalances favoring men in the office as well as that he would aggressively confront sexual harassment allegations against women surrounding the office.
Regarding ongoing cases, Khan said, "Requesting preliminary investigations is a start. But the proof in the pudding is in the eating. We have to perform in the trial...we cannot invest so much, raise expectations so high," while achieving so little so often in terms of convictions.
Bensouda herself is a Muslim coming from Gambia who sometimes wears traditional African-style garb, but is equally comfortable in modern western-style business clothing.
While one never knows what influence people’s backgrounds might have on a person’s view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - all indications to The Jerusalem Post during a 2016 visit and interview with Bensouda in The Hague were that it is not a major factor for her.
Rather, to the extent she ruled against Israel in March in moving toward a full war crimes probe, she was acting as part of a group of internationalists who focus on getting justice for killed civilians in conflict zones regardless of the context. If Bensouda has been hard on Israel, she is also being hard on the US and England, not to mention Russia and many African nations.
These internationalists tend to criticize Israel, the US and just about any country who uses force, not out of anti-Semetism or anti-Americanism per se. Instead, it may come more from a view that the world would be more peaceful if Israel and the US used less force.
This ideological group tends to downplay the role of terror and aggressive non-democratic countries in destabilizing and threatening Israel and other countries as something that simple dialogue can resolve.
In that spirit, Bensouda confirmed to the Post in 2016 that her office had taken the position that judging whether opening a full war crimes investigation is in the “interests of justice” is less focused on achieving peace or balance between the parties than it is on victims’ justice.
While victims’ justice is important, and very important in the ivory tower of philosophy, that kind of a focus often is ready to ignore the overall potential destabilizing impact of such prosecutions.
However, a recent decision Bensouda issued regarding the Philippines may provide Israel some hope.
Although Bensouda has moved to open a full criminal probe against the Philippines, she also issued her most pragmatic statement to date about potential limits on the probe in light of the ICC’s limited diplomatic support and resources.
Looking into the future, she wrote, “My term as Prosecutor will end shortly. Any authorized investigation in the Philippines will fall to my able successor, Mr Karim Khan, to take forward.”
“In this context, it is clear that how the Office, under his leadership, will set priorities concerning this investigation will need to take into account the operational challenges arising from the continuing pandemic, the severe limitations on the ICC’s available resources, and the Office’s current heavy work commitments,” she said.
Continuing, Bensouda said, “the Court today stands at a cross-roads in several concurrent situations, where the basis to proceed is legally and factually clear, but the operational means to do so are severely lacking. It is a situation that requires not only prioritization by the Office… but also open and frank discussions with the Assembly of States Parties, and other stakeholders of the Rome Statute system, on the real resource needs of the Court.”
“There is a serious mismatch between situations where the Rome Statute demands action by the Prosecutor and the resources made available to the Office,” she said.
Bensouda’s term was characterized by slow-moving cases, only around 10 convictions and criticism from all sides.
Some critics said she opened too many cases against African countries.
However, when she opened a case against the US, the Trump administration sanctioned her and some of her staff – also slamming The Hague for going after Israel.
The Biden administration removed the sanctions, but still criticized the ICC for pursuing the US as well as for pursuing Israel.
Karim Khan, new ICC chief prosecutor, to decide Israel’s fate
When she ruled against Israel in March moving toward a full war crimes probe, she was acting as part of a group of internationalists who focus on getting justice for killed civilians.
m.jpost.com
Karim Khan, a prominent Qadiani-Ahmadi in the UK, has been appointed chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court
Intro As we all know, Ahmadiyya is a political organization and thus works non-stop behind the scenes with the top governments of the world as they push the Ahmadiyya agenda. Nevertheless, Britain&…
ahmadiyyafactcheckblog.com
@Indus Pakistan @Falcon29 @500 @DavidSling @Dariush the Great @sammuel @Beny Karachun @El Sidd
