Dear all,

Please find below the news headlines on international criminal justice from August. You can find past headlines and other relevant resources on the International Association of Prosecutors’ (IAP) Forum for International Criminal Justice (FICJ) website.

The FICJ is password protected and only IAP members have access. This is meant to facilitate open and frank dialogue between prosecutors. Please contact Evie Sardeman, Office Manager (OM@iap-association.org) or Janne Holst Hübner, Communication Manager (CM@iap-association.org) with questions about IAP membership and website access.

******

30 August
UN SG: Cambodia Khmer Rouge tribunal needs funding
(Source: Jurist)
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday that Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge tribunal, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), is running out of money, threatening its survival. Ban urged international donors to provide financial support to keep the tribunal running. Due to the financial strain, some staff have not been paid in months and are now threatening to strike…

29 August
ICTY removes judge from Vojislav Seselj’s war crimes trial
(Source: Deutsche Welle)
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced on Thursday that it had disqualified Danish Judge Frederik Harhoff from adjudicating at the trial of Serbian ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj. It said a special panel or chamber of three judges appointed to consider Sesejl’s request for Harhoff’s removal had voted 2-1 in favor of the disqualification. “The Chamber found… that Judge Frederik Harhoff had demonstrated an unacceptable appearance of bias in favour of conviction,” a statement posted on the ICTY’s website said…

It’s Time for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi to Go to The Hague
(Source: Human Rights Watch)
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the former Libyan leader, has been held under guard by a militia in Zintan in western Libya for close to two years, as the new Libyan authorities and the International Criminal Court (ICC) argue over who will try him. After failing in a bid to prosecute the ICC’s allegations against Gaddafi, it’s time for Libya to follow its legal obligations and turn him over to the ICC…

28 August
Bosnia police chief sentenced to 14 years for war crimes
(Source: Jurist)
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday sentenced Goran Saric, a former police chief, to 14 years for crimes against humanity. His charges specifically involved detention, forced transfer and murder of civilian Bosniak population of Sarajevo’s Centar municipality between June and July 1992 during the Bosnian Civil War in violation of Article 172(1)(h) of BiH’s Criminal Code…

27 August
Rwanda Tribunal digs up partial truth
(Source: Radio Netherlands)
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) based in Arusha, Tanzania, is due to conclude at the end of 2014 following several deferrals. Analysts have globally recognised the ICTR’s role in bringing perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandese genocide to justice. However, for a variety of reasons, analysts also believe that the tribunal has not entirely fulfilled its mandate…

UN failed to investigate Kosovo war crimes: AI
(Source: Jurist)
The UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) failed to adequately investigate missing person reports in the aftermath of the 1998-99 Kosovo war with Serbia, Amnesty International (AI) reported Tuesday…

26 August
UN rights chief visits Sri Lanka to investigate war crimes allegations
(Source: Jurist)
At the beginning of a week-long visit to Sri Lanka, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay pledged to raise concerns with the government’s human rights record, particularly with regard to alleged war crimes against ethnic Tamils…

19 August
Chad: Investigation Starts in Habre Case
(Source: allAfrica)
The special court charged with trying former Chadian president Hissène Habré this Monday launched its investigations with a two-week mission to Chad, reports Radio France Internationale. Habré, who has been living in exile in Senegal for 22 years, was arrested on June 30 at his home in Dakar and charged two days later with crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture committed between 1982 and 1990 when he was in power in Chad…

18 August
Jailed general cleared of contempt of court
(Source: WDTN)
The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal has acquitted a jailed Bosnian Serb army general of contempt of court, saying his post-traumatic stress disorder was a reasonable excuse for refusing to testify in the trial of his former commander-in-chief, Radovan Karadzic. Gen. Radislav Krstic, who is serving a 35-year sentence for aiding and abetting genocide, was subpoenaed last year to testify at Karadzic’s long-running trial, but repeatedly refused to give evidence, citing ill health…

16 August
ICC Seeks to Reassure Kenyan Violence Victims
(Source: IWPR)
Ahead of two trials due to start in The Hague in the coming months, the prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court, ICC, has sought to reassure Kenyans about the strength of its case against the country’s leaders. Despite significant challenges surrounding its investigations in Kenya the Office of the Prosecutor, OTP, has said the public “should not read too much into” revelations that certain witnesses who were due to testify before the court have recently been replaced…

15 August
Israel extradites Serb-Israeli to Bosnia-Herzegovina for genocide
(Source: Jerusalem Post)
The government of Bosnia- Herzegovina submitted the request for his extradition on August 29, 2010…Extraditions are a rare proceeding where a defendant can both go before the Supreme Court as an appeals court and later appeal to the same court in its capacity as the High Court of Justice on different grounds. Zvtkovic is suspected of involvement in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which as many as 8,000 Muslims were executed after Serb forces overran the town during the civil war in Bosnia…

13 August
Hague war crimes ruling threatens to undermine future prosecutions
(Source: The Guardian)
Generals and politicians could evade responsibility for war crimes in future because of a ruling requiring proof that they “specifically directed” atrocities, say some international lawyers and senior judges. A series of acquittals by the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) have created a novel judicial precedent that human rights groups fear will make it difficult to deliver justice in the wake of massacres…

11 August
HRW states July 29 Iraq bombings were crimes against humanity
(Source: Jurist)
Human Rights Watch stated on Sunday that the Islamic State of Iraq, a suspected al Qaeda branch, had committed crimes against humanity during the July 29 bombings in Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for a series of car bombs implemented to aid a prison raid. The July 29 bombings killed over 60 people, and July was the bloodiest month in Iraq in over five years according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) estimates…

8 August
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s lawyer calls for UK intervention over execution fears
(Source: The Guardian)
The British lawyer representing Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has called on the UK to intervene on his client’s behalf amid fears that the son of the former Libyan dictator will be sentenced to death in a trial expected later in August…

7 August
ICC Prosecutor voices concern about ongoing serious crimes in Central African Republic
(Source: UN News Centre)
The prosecutor of the world’s first permanent court set up to try those accused of genocide and war crimes today voiced her deep concern about the worsening security situation in the Central African Republic (CAR) and reports of serious crimes being committed there…

5 August
International prosecutor accuses Nigerian Islamist group of possible crimes against humanity
(Source: Montreal Gazette)
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says that after a preliminary investigation she believes that acts attributed to the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram are likely crimes against humanity. “Information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that since July 2009 Boko Haram has launched a widespread and systematic attack that has resulted in the killing of more than 1,200 Christian and Muslim civilians in different locations throughout Nigeria,” Fatou Bensouda wrote in a report issued Monday…

ICC moves witnesses to Europe ahead of Hague trial
(Source: The Star)
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has relocated five top witnesses from an African country ahead of the start of hearings for the post election violence cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta, his Deputy William Ruto and journalist Joshua Arap Sang…Before they were flown out by officials from the ICC Witness Protection Unit there were fears about their security which led to the relocation on a night flight two days ago. ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is expected to use the witnesses to testify during the hearings…

Liberia: Taylor Complains From Prison
(Source: allAfrica)
Detained ex-President Charles Taylor has written the African Union, complaining about the prison condition and the discrimination being meted out against him and other African detainees there, describing it as racist…

2 August
Special Tribunal for Lebanon sets provisional date for Hariri murder trial
(Source: Middle East Online)
The UN-backed tribunal set up to try the killers of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri on Friday set a provisional January start date for the trial. “The pre-trial Judge at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon today issued an order setting 13 January 2014 as a new tentative date for the start of the trial,” the court said in a statement…

Syria: UN human rights chief urges probe into alleged execution of Government soldiers
(Source: UN News Centre)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay today urged an independent investigation into whether war crimes had been committed when armed opposition groups in Syria allegedly executed dozens of captured Government soldiers in the northern province of Aleppo last month…