Election of the ICC prosecutor: four candidates to succeed Fatou Bensouda
The headquarters of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands (illustrative image).
Peter Dejong / AP / SIPA - Peter Dejong / AP / SIPA
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The Assembly of 123 States Parties to the International Criminal Court is due to elect its future prosecutor this Friday.
Fatou Bensouda will step down on June 15, after a nine-year term.
His successor will have to collect the votes of 62 states to take charge of the prosecution.
Four candidates are in the running for this election.
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With our correspondent in The Hague,
Stéphanie Maupas
The future ICC prosecutor will have to head an office of more than 300 people and a budget of 50 million euros.
On his desk, the winner will find investigations for crimes against humanity and war crimes opened in 13 countries.
The campaign opened 18 months ago was punctuated with twists and turns, negotiations and low blows.
Among the survivors of this race is the favorite,
Karim Khan
, who is the current head of the UN investigation into the crimes of the Islamic State, based in Iraq.
Charismatic, passionate, the Briton was notably the lawyer for several defendants before the ICC and the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where he started in the prosecutor's office.
In second position, we find Fergal Gaynor.
The Irishman served as counsel for victims in the Kenyatta case before the ICC and represents other victims in the Afghanistan and Palestine cases.
Two other candidates, supported by a small handful of states, are in the running.
The Spaniard Carlos Castresana, is the former boss of the Commission against Impunity in Guatemala and the Italian Francesco Lo Voï, the current Attorney General of Palermo.
The future ICC prosecutor should have been elected by consensus.
But Monday, February 8, 15 minutes from the appointment of Karim Khan, Spain broke the difficult agreement without it being known very well if it was a final burst of pride to save its own candidate or one last maneuver in this hotly contested election.
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