Crimes against humanity in Venezuela: the prosecutor intends to announce a decision “in a few days”

The Attorney General of International Penal Court (IPC), Fatu Bensouda, hopes to announce the opening or not of an investigation against the dictatorship of Venezuela for Crimes against humanity as soon as the tribunal resolves a claim from the Caribbean country, something he trusts will happen “in a few days”.

“The case is now awaiting the judges and I can’t say much more, at least at this point.“, He said Bensouda, who is confident of being able to make public his decision on the Caribbean country “before the end“His mandate, that is to say before June 15.

The preliminary examination of the Office of the Prosecutor of CPI, open to Venezuela in February 2018, study the hypotheses abuses by Venezuelan security forces in demonstrations and prisons since at least April 2017. Investigations by the Hague prosecutor’s office “they have advanced considerably», Assured the lawyer.

Its imminent decision has, in principle, two possible outcomes: close the case or transform the preliminary examination in progress into an investigation by Crimes against humanity. However, Venezuelan leaders last month submitted an application for judicial review to magistrates in the CPI in which they complained about the treatment “discriminatory“O”unequal“Regarding the one received by other countries which are also under preliminary examination, according to the prosecutor general of the regime, Tarek Saab.

Bensouda he said he couldn’t “ignore“The claim of Caracas and submitted a response including “examples and statistics of the engagement we have had with Venezuela during all this time”.

“Regarding the assertion that my office has no connection with Venezuela, that it was not transparent or that it did not provide information, I can categorically say that it is incorrect», Said the Attorney General of The Hague.

Even if Caracas publicly announced the application for judicial review, the handing over of the documentation was treated confidentially, so it is not known when the judges will rule.

Crimes against humanity

Bensouda advanced in November of last year that there is “reasonable grounds to believe“That crimes against humanity were committed in Venezuela. In the last report made public, he referred to possible crimes of torture, sexual violence and politically motivated persecution, the victims of which are believed to be members of the opposition.

In recent months, his office has studied whether the justice system in this country has conducted real investigations into these abuses, a circumstance that would prevent the jurisdiction of the CPI. If the Attorney General of The Hague approve the investigation, it would start directly and would not need the approval of the judges because six countries –Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Peru Yes Canada– referred the Venezuelan situation to the Court in 2018.

Caracas invited the Office of the Prosecutor of CPI to visit Venezuela, but he assures us that he has not received an answer. The government considers this to be a comparative grievance concerning Colombia, country to which the delegations of The Is They have come several times for the preliminary examination that this country has opened.

“For the moment, it does not seem very relevant to us to go to Venezuela to complete our assessment of the situation and the preliminary examination.“, replied Bensouda, who will be replaced by Briton Karim Khan for the next nine years.

On the other hand, the Office of the Prosecutor of CPI opened a second preliminary examination, promoted last year by the dictatorship of Nicolas Mature, in which State United crimes against humanity due to the economic sanctions imposed on Venezuela.

Bensouda explained that the two files on the Caribbean country have so far been treated separately, but that this “strength switch“In the future because both”seem to overlap, at least geographically and temporally”.

(With information from the EFE agency) .-

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