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24 Aug 2016 - NPWJ News Digest on International Criminal Justice
Articles
Guilty plea at ICC Timbuktu artefacts destruction case
by Al Jazeera, 23 Aug 2016
A Malian fighter has admitted guilt at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the first ever case of a suspect charged with war crimes against a World Heritage site. Ahmas al-Faqi al-Mahdi pleaded guilty on Monday at the ICC in The Hague where he is accused of intentionally attacking nine mausoleums and the Sidi Yahi mosque within the city of Timbuktu in Mali. Mahdi asked for forgiveness and said he had been swept up in an "evil wave" by al-Qaeda and the Ansar Dine groups, which briefly seized control of the northern city in 2012. "This is the first and last wrongful act I will ever commit," Mahdi told the court in a measured and grave opening address. "I regret what I have caused to my family, my community in Timbuktu, what I have caused to my home nation Mali," he added. Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan, reporting from The Hague, described Mahdi's ICC trial as "genuinely groundbreaking" for several reasons. "It's the first case arising from the 2012 conflict in Mali and the first time that destruction of religious and historical sites has been made a priority charge as a war crime," he said.
Ethiopia: UN Rights Office Urges Ethiopia to Ensure Independent Probe of Reported Violations in Oromia Region
by All Africa, 19 Aug 2016
Voicing concern over serious human rights violations in the Oromia and Amhara regions of Ethiopia earlier this month, the United Nations human rights chief today urged the Government to ensure access for independent observers to affected areas and to work towards opening up political and democratic reforms. Against the backdrop of extremely alarming reports on human rights abuses during public protests over the weekend of 6-8 August, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, appealed to the Ethiopian authorities for allowing human rights experts to access to the conflict zones and evaluate the situation. "We welcome the decision to launch an independent investigation, and we urge the Government to ensure that the investigation has a mandate to cover allegations of human rights violations since the unrest in Oromia began in November 2015," Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), told reporters in Geneva.
Central African Republic: Bemba Faces Rising Financial Burdens At the ICC
by allAfrica, 19 Aug 2016
Jean-Pierre Bemba is facing difficulties in paying lawyers representing him against witness tampering charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) due to a refusal by an organ of the court to advance him sufficient resources to maintain his legal team. The court froze the Congolese businessman-turned-opposition leader's assets eight years ago. In an August 12 filing, defense lawyer Melinda Taylor says with effect from July 1, 2016, legal aid was cut off completely in the witness tampering trial, "even if the case entered into a possible appellate stage." The defense has reached a point where "it has absolutely no funding," said Taylor as she requested judges to order the court's registry to advance legal aid to the accused on a provisional basis.
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Dutch Probe Death Threats Against Palestinian Rights Activist Aiding ICC's 2014 Gaza War Inquiry
by Haarezt, 11 Aug 2016
REUTERS - Dutch authorities are investigating death threats against a Palestinian rights activist in The Hague targeted because she has made submissions to the International Criminal Court's inquiry into the 2014 Gaza conflict. Nada Kiswanson, a legal researcher at Palestinian rights group Al-Haq, said the threats began early this year and have continued on a regular basis since. "My channels of communication have been totally compromised," Kiswanson told Reuters, adding that she had received death threats by e-mail, via family members and in the form of flower deliveries to her home with accompanying messages. When she purchased an anonymous pre-paid mobile phone number, she received a threat on it a day later. Messages had come in Dutch, English and "broken Arabic", she said. The Jordanian-Swedish citizen had also been called on a family member's pre-paid Jordanian number while staying in the country, while a relative in Sweden had been called and told that Kiswanson would be "eliminated." Human rights organization Amnesty International said it was forced to temporarily close its office in The Hague for security reasons after an employee's personal e-mail was hacked and used to send Kiswanson a death threat.
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