“The decision to do justice in Libya should be taken by the Libyan people,” International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Wednesday, referring to recent violence in the North African country.
Justice in the hands of Libyans: Moreno-Ocampo
I purposefully looked what Moreno Ocampo had to say on the subject after I saw, earlier today, that there were some comments made by the French foreign minister.
Moreno Ocampo who would be the prosecutor, if the crimes were to be taken to International Criminal Court, had more to say:
As Libya is not a State Party to the ICC, the court can only intervene if the Libyan authorities accept its jurisdiction, or if the UN Security Council decides to refer the case to the Court.
“The Office of the Prosecutor will act only after either decision is taken,“ said Moreno-Ocampo.
The ICC would first have to open an investigation to see if the political violence in Libya can be considered as a crime against humanity.
However, since Libya is not signatory to the Rome Statute establishing the ICC, the best chance for the investigation to begin is if the UN Security Council asks the ICC to take on the case. This has happened only once in the past, when the Security Council referred the situation of atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region to the ICC, after which the court issued two warrants for the Sudanese president Omar Al Bashir.
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