International justice: the mixed record of Fatou Bensouda at the ICC
Fatou Bensouda, January 28, 2016 (illustrative image).
Of the magistrate's mandate, history will undoubtedly retain the failure of her office on the files targeting the most senior officials.
© ICC-CPI
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
At the end of a nine-year mandate, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, will hand over the baton this Wednesday, June 16 to the British Karim Khan.
The Gambian magistrate was elected to reconcile Africa with the ICC.
Review of nine years in office.
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With our correspondent in The Hague,
Stéphanie Maupas
During her tenure, Fatou Bensouda rarely visited crime sites, but before turning the page, the prosecutor traveled to Darfur.
The Gambian magistrate went to Sudan to seek the cooperation of the authorities to execute the arrest warrant for genocide issued more than ten years ago against former President Omar al-Bashir.
Failure on top officials
Of Fatou Bensouda's mandate, history will undoubtedly remember the failure of his office on the files targeting the most senior officials.
Acquittals for the former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo, and the Congolese Jean-Pierre Bemba.
And then Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta is dismissed.
It was these different cases that had aroused the mistrust of African states, suspecting the Court of being the judicial arm of Western policies on the continent.
New surveys
To counter these attacks, Fatou Bensouda opened new investigations far from Africa, including three heavy cases.
The Court is now investigating crimes committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Afghanistan and Georgia.
Facts involving Russia, the United States, and Israel.
Three powerful states which have always refused its jurisdiction.
While these investigations give the Court a global reach, no arrest warrant issued to date has targeted suspects outside the African continent.
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To read also:
International justice: with Karim Khan, the ICC must make people forget its failures in Africa
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