At the end of a nine-year term, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, will hand over the baton, on Wednesday 16 June, to the British Karim Khan. The Gambian magistrate was elected to unite Africa with the ICC. Review of nine years in office.
as reported from The Hague, Stephanie Maupas
During his time there, Fatou Bensouda rarely visited crime scenes, but before turning the page, the prosecutor traveled to Darfur. The Gambian magistrate went to Sudan to seek the cooperation of the authorities to carry out the genocide arrest warrant issued more than ten years ago against former President Omar al-Bashir.
Failure of top officials
From Fatou Bensouda’s mandate, history will no doubt remember that his office failed with the files addressed to senior officials. Acquittals for former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and Congolese Jean-Pierre Bemba. And then Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was dismissed. It was these various cases that had aroused distrust among African states and suspected that the court was the western policy of Western politics on the continent.
New surveys
To counter these attacks, Fatou Bensouda launched 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 that have always refused its jurisdiction. While these investigations give the court a global reach, no arrest warrants have been issued so far targeting suspects off the African continent.
► Also read: International justice: with Karim Khan, the ICC must make people forget their failures in Africa
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