According to ICC Presiding Judge at the Pre-trial Chamber II Ekaterina Trendafilova, Luis Moreno Ocampo has now missed the deadline for ensuring that 59 victims who have applied to appear before the court to raise their concerns on what they underwent during Kenya’s deadliest poll violence could actually be heard:
“The Prosecutor’s Request makes clear that the two-week deadline established by the 30 March 2011 Decision was simply disregarded or overlooked.”
According to reports, the victim’s evidence could have included detailed evidence of rape and sexual violence.
Of course, Luis Moreno Ocampo was cleared of charges of sexual misconduct himself - although the matter was so serious that a member of staff who “blew the whistle” by making an internal complaint against Mr Moreno-Ocampo — and who was then sacked by him — is to receive nearly £20,000 in “moral damages”, as well as compensatory damages approaching £100,000 – Damages and costs to be paid not by the prosecutor but by the International Criminal Court itself. (Click here and go to the appendix for more on the Luis Moreno Ocampo rape allegations).
Yesterday, Luis Moreno Ocampo had this to say:
“Gadaffi himself decided to rape – and this is a new pattern, to control the population. Rape is a new aspect.”
He went on to say that if the Judges of the ICC were to issue warrants against Gadaffi this would mean that the rapes would stop.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, Chairman of the UN Human Rights Council and war crimes expert Cherif Bassiouni said:
“People are accusing each other of a policy of rape. People are accusing mercenaries and foreign fighters of engaging in rape. I would like to say at this point its more of an hysterical social reaction. We have no evidence of it.”
Poonam Joshi of Amnesty International confirmed that in the areas where Amnesty workers who have been on the ground for several months in Eastern Libya and Misrata they “haven’t come across any hard evidence yet” of rape or sexual violence.
Even Liesel Gerntholtz, head of women’s rights at Human Rights Watch (partly funded by western governments and secretive off-shore trusts), which also investigated the charge of mass rape, said: “We have not been able to find evidence.”
Luis Moreno Ocampo has previously been accused of bizaare behaviour and as Alex De Waal, co-director of Justice Africa has argued with regards to the decision to charge President Bashir with genocide:
“for nineteen years, President Bashir has sat on top of a government that has been responsible for incalculable crimes [...] Two weeks ago, Moreno Ocampo succeeded in accusing Bashir of the crime for which he is not guilty. That is a remarkable feat.”
It is no surprise at all to HRI to hear that Justice Ekaterina has now reprimanded the Prosecutor, saying it was up to him to organise his office so as to meet deadlines issued by the court.
HRI fully supports the call for the immediate resignation of Luiz Moreno Ocampo issued by the legal editor of the Daily Telegraph, Joshua Rozenberg
On 12 July AP reported:
“A French lawyer, meanwhile, announced in Tripoli that he is going to present a petition on behalf of the Libyan government to the International Criminal Court’s appeals body to have its prosecutor and judges recused for bias.
Marcel Ceccaldi told reporters that ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and the judges that handed down arrest warrants for Gadhafi, one of his sons and a top lieutenant for war crimes should be thrown out.
“We have proof that the investigation of Moreno is biased and in the service of the coalition bombing the Libyan state,” Ceccaldi said.
He said the court lacked legitimacy and criticized Moreno-Ocampo for collecting testimonies only in the rebel-held parts of the country.”
HRI fully supports the recusal of Luis Moreno Ocampo.
More on Moreno Ocampo from Joshua Rozenberg of the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/apr/21/moreno-ocampo-international-criminal-court