US revokes visa of ICC prosecutor
PARIS: The United States has revoked the visa of the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor because of her attempts to investigate allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan, including any that may have been committed by US forces.
The visa revocation — confirmed on Friday by the office of chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and the State Department in Washington — was assailed by rights advocates as unprecedented interference by the US into the workings of the court, established nearly two decades ago to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Bensouda, a Gambian lawyer for the court based in The Hague, formally requested an investigation more than a year ago into war crimes in Afghanistan.
The inquiry would mostly focus on large-scale crimes against civilians attributed to the Taliban and Afghan government forces.
But it would also examine alleged Central Intelligence Agency and US military abuse in detention centres in Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004, and at sites in Poland, Lithuania and Romania.
An ICC panel of judges has yet to authorise whether to open the criminal investigation.
The revocation of Bensouda’s visa came less than a month after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed to revoke visas for those connected with court investigations involving American citizens. The US is not a member state of the ICC and does not recognise the court’s authority to prosecute Americans.
In the past, though, the US has cooperated with the court on other investigations, and Washington played a central role in establishing international criminal law at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders and in the creation of modern tribunals.
“The US government should actively invite the prosecutor to come and meet, not ban her from travelling,” Amnesty International’s Centre for International Justice said on Twitter.
“Cooperation with the ICC is in the US’ interests to share relevant information and show there is nothing to hide.”
Pompeo, in a March news briefing in Washington, said investigators “should not assume that you will still have or will get a visa, or that you will be permitted to enter the US” if they are part of the ICC investigation.
He also said the US was prepared to take further action.
“These visa restrictions will not be the end of our efforts,” Pompeo said at the time.
“We are prepared to take additional steps, including economic sanctions, if the ICC does not change its course.”