UN/ICTRThe United Nations Security Council on Wednesday called on member states to arrest persons wanted by Rwanda or by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for suspected participation in the 1994 genocide. The call came in a unanimous resolution coinciding with commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the genocide which, according to the UN, left some 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis, dead. The resolution also condemned any denial of the genocide and stressed the importance of learning lessons from it.
ICC/ SUDANThe International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday postponed indefinitely the trial of Sudanese rebel leader Abdallah Banda for war crimes committed in Darfur, western Sudan, in September 2007. Banda is charged with three counts of war crimes (violence to life, pillaging and attacking peacekeepers).
ICC/KENYA The ICC on Thursday granted a Prosecutor’s request to subpoena eight witnesses who had retracted their willingness to testify in the trial of Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto and journalist Joshua Sang. The two men are charged with crimes against humanity for crimes committed in post-election violence in 2007-2008. The eight witnesses, all of Kenyan nationality, had either stopped cooperating with the Prosecutor’s office or said they no longer wished to testify. This is the first time the ICC has ordered reluctant witnesses to appear before the Court.
ICC/UKRAINEUkraine has accepted the ICC’s jurisdiction for crimes allegedly committed on its territory from November 21, 2013 to February 22, 2014. The ICC Registrar on Thursday received a declaration to this effect filed under Article 12 (3) of the Rome Statute, which allows a non-member State to accept the Court’s jurisdiction.
ER/JC