The complaint is reaffirmed with an agile and rapid response from the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, which unfortunately are being committed every day in Venezuela. This will fulfill one of its purposes, that the authors of the most execrable crimes that constitute a threat to the peace, security and well-being of humanity, will not go unpunished.
Blas J. Imbroda, president of the International Criminal Bar, joined the initiative of the former Attorney General of Venezuela to get the Criminal Court of The Hague to judge the president and several Chavez soldiers for crimes against humanity. The jurist, who chairs one of the most important lawyers' organizations in the world, is an expert in Criminal Law and International Criminal Law and professor at the Universities of Melilla and Isabel I.
The complaint of the prosecutor was focused directly against the president, Maduro; the defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López; the Minister of the Interior and Justice, Néstor Reverol, and other officials linked to the state security forces.
Luisa Ortega Díaz doesn’t want the demand for crimes against humanity against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and four Chavez generals to end up in a bin of the International Criminal Court as other actions that have come in recent years; and therefore the Attorney General removed by the National Constituent Assembly not only took four months to prepare it but also was advised by experts.
One of them accompanied her to The Hague (Holland). Spanish lawyer Blas Jesús Imbroda, who is since February 2017 chairs the International Criminal Bar an organization created in 2002 with the purpose of promoting international criminal justice and thus prevent serious crimes from going unpunished in the world.
Before being appointed to lead the group, he had already been elected president of the Immigration and Immigration Protection Committee of the General Council of Spanish Lawyers and president of the Bar Association of Melilla.
Imbroda is of the thesis that Maduro should be judged by the Court and so he made it clear in an article published in August by the Madrid newspaper ABC, where he said: "The succession of events (in Venezuela) is terrible: An endless number of deaths carried out by members of the National Guard in the brutal repression carried out against demonstrations and demonstrations against the dictatorial regime. Numerous and continuous arbitrary detentions. Imprisonment and serious deprivation of liberty in violation of fundamental norms of international law. Tortures Persecutions for political reasons. Enforced disappearances of people. These acts and this terrible way of acting are expressly defined in article 7 of the Statute of Rome that creates the International Criminal Court (ICC), as Crimes against Humanity that unfortunately are being committed every day in Venezuela. This will also fulfill one of its purposes, that the authors of the most execrable crimes that constitute a threat to the peace, security and well-being of humanity, will not go unpunished. "
The abuses committed by the Venezuelan security forces during the repression of the wave of protests this year is part of the complaint, but they are not the center, since it also covers the crimes that occurred in the framework of the latest security plans, among they are the Operation Liberation of the People (OLP), the militarization of citizen security and the excesses committed by the fearsome Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin).
500 pages and thousands of tests.
One of the requirements for the action that Ortega Díaz tried against Maduro and the Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, and the Interior, Néstor Reverol Torres, as well as against the head of the Sebin (political police), Gustavo González López, and the former commander of the National Guard, Antonio Benavides, respectively, is to be supported and the official assured that she is.
"We present a document of more than 500 pages written in Spanish, but we also deliver thousands of tests. Medical-legal, psychological and interviews with victims of executions, torture, illegal detentions and other crimes that the Government has been systematically committing since January 2015, "revealed the lawyer in a telephone conversation.
In total, Ortega Díaz presented to the Court, along with his complaint, 39 folders and 12 CDs full of information to support her claim.
She also didn’t rule out the possibility of including more officials in the future. "We leave the door open for this demand to expand. It is possible that more officials who have complied with the orders of those who have already denounced and who have committed crimes against humanity are indicated below, "she warned, without specifying whether she’s targeting only the military or maybe also civilians.
Therefore, as a result, the ICC announces the opening of preliminary examinations in Venezuela and the Philippines. In recent statements by the Prosecutor of the Court, Fatou Bensouda, anounces: "The preliminary examination of the situation in Venezuela will analyse crimes allegedly committed in this State Party since at least April 2017, in the context of demonstrations and related political unrest. In particular, it has been alleged that State security forces frequently used excessive force to disperse and put down demonstrations, and arrested and detained thousands of actual or perceived members of the opposition, a number of whom would have been allegedly subjected to serious abuse and ill-treatment in detention. It has also been reported that some groups of protestors resorted to violent means, resulting in some members of security forces being injured or killed.
Under the Rome Statute, national jurisdictions have the primary responsibility to investigate and prosecute those responsible for international crimes. I emphasise that a preliminary examination is not an investigation but a process of examining the information available in order to reach a fully informed determination on whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation pursuant to the criteria established by the Rome Statute. Specifically, under article 53(1) of the Rome Statute, I, as Prosecutor, must consider issues of jurisdiction, admissibility and the interests of justice in making this determination.
In conformity with the complementarity principle, which is a cornerstone of the Rome Statute legal system, and within the framework of each preliminary examination, my Office will be engaging with the national authorities concerned with a view to discussing and assessing any relevant investigation and prosecution at the national level.
In the independent and impartial exercise of its mandate, my Office will also give consideration to all submissions and views conveyed to it during the course of each preliminary examination, strictly guided by the requirements of the Rome Statute.
There are no statutory timelines on the length of a preliminary examination. Depending on the facts and circumstances of each situation, I will decide whether to initiate an investigation, subject to judicial review as appropriate; continue to collect information to establish a sufficient factual and legal basis to render a determination; or decline to initiate an investigation if there is no reasonable basis to proceed.
I reiterate that my Office undertakes this work with full independence and impartiality in accordance with its mandate and the applicable legal instruments of the Court. As we do, we hope to count on the full engagement of the relevant national authorities in the Philippines and Venezuela.
The ICC would have jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes if committed on the respective territories of the Philippines and Venezuela or by their respective nationals since the date when the Statute entered into force in each State, namely since 1 November 2011 in the case of Philippines, and since 1 July 2002, in Venezuela."
Sources:
https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=180208-otp-stat - 8 February - Statement of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Mrs Fatou Bensouda, on opening Preliminary Examinations into the situations in the Philippines and in Venezuela
