The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, has issued this Tuesday a request before the First Pre-Trial Chamber of the body to resume its investigations into alleged crimes against humanity in Venezuela.
In this regard, Khan has concluded, following an «independent and objective» assessment by the Office of the Prosecutor of the body that, although the Venezuelan authorities have undertaken measures aimed at addressing «various structural and systemic issues», these are «insufficient in scope or have not yet had a palpable impact».
Thus, the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC has argued that with this request he seeks «to continue its cooperation in good faith in support of the Venezuelan authorities’ efforts to carry out national proceedings that satisfy the Rome Statute’s requirements of complementarity».
In this sense, he made it clear that this request, as well as the conclusions of the investigation, «are not to the detriment of Venezuela». Thus, it has said that it maintains its «commitment» to dialogue with the authorities and interested parties in «the search for the truth».
«I take this opportunity to once again commend the Government of Venezuela for its constructive interaction with my Office since the opening of the preliminary examination and to date. Ultimately, it will be for the judges of the Court to decide on the merits of Venezuela’s request for deferral and our own request,» he concluded.
Khan already notified in April his intention to send such a request after receiving a request for deferral from Venezuela which corresponds to the procedure foreseen in Article 18 of the Rome Statute, by which the State can inform the ICC about the investigations it is carrying out for the same criminal acts that may constitute crimes under the jurisdiction of this court and request in turn the chief prosecutor of the ICC to refer to these investigations.
It is now up to the Pre-Trial Chamber to decide on the next step to be taken, after Khan has already submitted his request to proceed with the investigation, to which, as the ICC chief recalled in April, «the Venezuelan authorities did not agree».
The request of the ICC prosecutor to continue with his investigation was applauded by opposition leader Juan Guaidó, for whom it highlights «the work of the victims, their representatives and civil society on the road to achieving justice».
The ICC has two preliminary investigations open on abuses allegedly committed by Chavista forces since April 2017 and, in general terms, on the repression of the protests called against the government of Nicolás Maduro, with whom Khan met earlier this month to continue delving into this matter.
