ICC rejects Maduro regime’s appeal; investigation into human rights violations in Venezuela proceeds

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The International Criminal Court (ICC) has rejected the Nicolás Maduro regime’s appeal against the investigation initiated by the Prosecutor’s Office on the systematic violation of human rights under the Venezuelan kingpin’s rule. The full rejection ruling will be published on July 21.

The preliminary ruling, dated July 2, was only made public today and will be completed on July 21, the deadline for Venezuela to deliver its arguments to complement the ruling and advance with the formal indictment.

The decision released on Monday responds to the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC prosecutor’s request that the statements presented during the case be published in edited versions in order to protect victims and witnesses, among other affected parties.

In this respect, the Chamber that assessed the regime’s claims decided to dismiss the “appeal” for judicial review lodged by Venezuela in limine, in other words, due to its inadmissibility and for being clearly premature.

According to Article 11 of the resolution, “the Chamber rejected that article 21.3 of the Statute could serve as a legal basis for the request submitted. The Chamber noted that the Tribunal’s legal framework provides for a procedural opportunity to lodge the type of claims being presented by Venezuela and, therefore, there is no lacuna in the applicable law.”

“The Chamber noted that the relevant provision is Statute Article 18, although for this provision to be in place the Prosecutor must determine that there is a reasonable ground to proceed with an investigation. Since such determination had not yet been forthcoming, the Chamber found that Venezuela’s claim was premature and has therefore rejected it in limine.”

To this end, the Chamber ruled that the prosecution will have until July 23 to complete its submission with the edited information while safeguarding the identity of victims and witnesses. Meanwhile, it also granted the dictatorship until July 21 to submit its edited allegations.

However, this procedure will not modify the court’s decision to reject the Maduro regime’s appeal filed by Tarek William Saab, Venezuela’s Attorney General.

In June, outgoing ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she had intended to call for the opening of a formal investigation into crimes committed by government forces in Venezuela, but was prevented from doing so at the last minute following an intervention by the Chavista regime requesting that judges hear the case.

The task is now in the hands of Karim Khan, who will have to decide whether or not to request the opening of the trial once the Venezuelan objection proceedings are completed.

In February 2018, the ICC opened a preliminary investigation into Venezuela for alleged abuses by its security forces, both in the demonstrations since April 2017 and in some prisons where opponents were allegedly abused.

Bensouda had anticipated in November last year that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that crimes against humanity have been committed in Venezuela. In the last public report, she mentioned possible crimes of torture, sexual violence and politically motivated persecution of opposition members.

In June, after the change in the prosecutor’s office, the Venezuelan opposition urged Khan to “expedite” the Venezuelan case, since “all internal instances to seek justice had been exhausted.”

Julio Borges, appointed commissioner for Foreign Relations by Venezuela’s interim president Juan Guaidó added: “unfortunately the Venezuelan judicial system is part of the power structure committing the crimes.”

Source: Infobae