The Hague (BLAZETRENDS).- The International Criminal Court (ICC) has authorized this Tuesday prosecutor Karim Khan to resume his investigation into the alleged commission of crimes against humanity in Venezuela, considering that the “internal criminal proceedings” in Caracas do not sufficiently reflect the scope” of the case and there are “unexplained periods of inactivity”.
The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber noted that the focus of internal investigations “appears generally to be on direct and/or lower-level perpetrators” and considered that “limited investigative steps have been taken and that, in many cases, there appears to have been periods of unexplained investigative inactivity”.
Although he sees that Venezuela is taking “some investigative measures”, he considers that “its internal criminal proceedings do not sufficiently reflect the scope of the investigation” as a whole, especially with regard to crimes of persecution and of a sexual nature.
“Internal investigations seem to not sufficiently address the forms of crime that the Prosecutor’s Office intends to investigate, referring in particular to the discriminatory intent underlying the alleged crime of persecution and the apparently insufficient investigation of crimes of a sexual nature,” the Chamber noted.
However, the judges recalled that this conclusion “does not prevent” Caracas from providing in the future material that determines the “inadmissibility on the basis of complementarity”, that is, that demonstrates that the Venezuelan justice system is already investigating all the alleged crimes. against humanity denounced by the victims and that the investigation by the ICC prosecutor is not necessary.
The shadow of crimes against humanity
In addition to the arguments of the prosecutor to resume the investigation and the observations of the Venezuelan authorities against the reopening of the case, the judges have taken into account some 1,875 presentations of opinions and concerns transmitted through the Section for Reparation and Participation of the victims.
Venezuela ratified the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC, in 2000, and in September 2018 the Court’s prosecutor’s office received a referral from Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay and Peru, in which they denounce the alleged commission of crimes against humanity in Venezuela since February 12, 2014.
In November 2021, the prosecutor’s office announced that the preliminary examination initiated based on that referral had concluded and that the decision had been made to proceed with a formal investigation, but accompanied by a memorandum of understanding with Caracas to promote means and mechanisms. that promote a national process in Venezuela.
In April of last year, Caracas asked to defer the ICC prosecutor’s investigations in favor of the Venezuelan national authorities, who would continue to pursue investigations in this case.
However, in November, prosecutor Karim Khan asked the Pre-Trial Chamber to authorize him to resume that investigation because Caracas is not doing enough in the case.
Since then, Caracas and the prosecutor have been presenting their respective replies to the Chamber, during a process in which Venezuela accused Khan of “instrumentalizing” justice “for political purposes.”