Credit: ICC / ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda

By Gary Raynaldo    /  DIPLOMATIC TIMES

The U.S. vows to battle the International  Criminal Court after the Hague-based war tribunal’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda was given the green light to appeal a previous ruling that blocked her request to open a probe into possible war crimes committed during the conflict in Afghanistan. In April U.S. authorities announced it had revoked Bensouda’s entry into the United States, as part of its sweeping policy to deny visas to ICC members investigating alleged war crimes committed by American troops in Afghanistan.  The U.S.’  persona non grata  ICC list  extends all the  way up to boss lady Bensouda, who is from west African nation Gambia.   Then,  just days after the  U.S. action in April,  the ICC apparently caved into the relentless pressure and scathing attacks by the Trump Administration that vowed to all but destroy the war tribunal if it investigated alleged American war crimes in Afghanistan.  The ICC announced  that it rejected a request made by the ICC prosecutor to open a probe into possible war crimes committed during the conflict in Afghanistan.  The ICC was seeking  to hold the U.S. accountable for alleged war crimes including torture of detainees by C.I.A. operatives at secret prisons known as “black sites.” 

Now, however, Bensouda’s probe has been given new life.

On September 17, the  Pre-Trial Chamber II of the ICC granted in part the request of the Prosecutor for Leave to Appeal the “Decision Pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute on the Authorisation of an Investigation into the Situation in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan”.  Once the Prosecutor will submit her appeal, it will then be up to the Appeals Chamber to decide whether or not to confirm the Pre-Trial chamber’s decision.  Last week, the ICC Prosecutor submitted a brief to appeal the April decision.

U.S. Secretary Of State Pompeo Prepares For Battle To Prevent ICC Probe of Americans 

Credit: U.S. Department of State.  Michael Pompeo, Secretary of State

“The United States remains committed to protecting its personnel from the ICC’s wrong-headed efforts spearheaded by a few grandstanders.  The judges were right to reject the Prosecutor’s outrageous request to investigate U.S. personnel on April 12, and the appeal process is pointless as far as we are concerned.  The United States is not a party to the ICC’s Rome Statute and has consistently voiced its unequivocal objections to any attempts to assert ICC jurisdiction over U.S. personnel.  An investigation by the ICC of U.S. personnel would be unjustified and unwarranted, and any ICC effort to re-open this case would be a waste of its time and resources – something the ICC judges recognized when they stated in their decision that such an investigation would be “inevitably doomed to failure.”

-Michael Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State

U.S. Will Continue  Policy Restricting Issuance of Visas to Certain ICC Officials 

Pompeo reiterated that the  U.S. will take all necessary steps to defend its sovereignty and protect U.S. and allied personnel from unjust investigation and prosecution by the ICC.  “On March 15, we announced a policy restricting issuance of visas to any and all ICC officials determined to be directly responsible for an ICC investigation of U.S. personnel, or of allied personnel without our allies’ consent.  We will remain vigilant in applying this policy.  The United States respects the decision of those nations that have chosen to join the ICC, and in turn, we expect that our decision not to join and not to place our people under the court’s jurisdiction will also be respected.”

ICC Seeks Unprecedented investigation of alleged U.S. War Crimes in Afghanistan

Credit: Wikipedia /US troops in Afghanistan

In November 2017, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda asked judges to open an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Afghan national security forces, Taliban and Haqqani network fighters, as well as U.S. forces and intelligence officials in Afghanistan since May 2003. 

Last September 2018, the Trump Administration unleashed one of the most scathing public attacks on an global judicial institution in recent memory.  In an unprecedented, vitriolic attack on the ICC, US National Security Adviser John Bolton threatened sanctions on The Hague-based war tribunal if the court dares investigate alleged American war crimes in Afghanistan. Bolton made the  remarks in a speech at the ultra-conservative Federalist Society in Washington D.C.