International Criminal Court postponed announcement of Maduro regime’s investigation into crimes against humanity

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has postponed the announcement of the investigation into crimes against humanity committed by the Maduro regime.

Bensouda, who ended his post as chief of the ICC prosecutor’s office on Tuesday, said last week that he hoped to announce whether or not he would open an investigation into Venezuela for crimes against humanity as soon as the court will have resolved a request from the Caribbean country.

“With regard to Venezuela, I was committed to reaching a final determination, to the extent possible, for the remainder of my term.. Perhaps in anticipation of this outcome, as you will have seen in the media, an ICC chamber received a dossier from the government of Venezuela asking it to exercise judicial review over the conduct of our preliminary examination. This was presented in confidence, so I cannot refer to it in detail, although the fact of their presentation was publicly mentioned by the Venezuelan authorities themselves, ”Bensouda wrote, a farewell letter.

The ICC prosecutor’s office preliminary review, which opened in Venezuela in February 2018, has been investigating alleged abuses by security forces in protests and prisons since at least April 2017.

In the letter, ICC chief prosecutor says she had reached a final conclusion on the investigation and was ready to present it, but with the appeal presented by the Maduro regime, he decided to wait for the decision of the ICC chamber before making an announcement.

“These procedures and their results are currently classified as confidential, although we expect they will be made public shortly. Considering the time that has passed, the only thing I can do at this stage is to hand the document, which has been completed, to the incoming prosecutor for review and final decision, ”Bensouda added.

Chavista Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced on Monday that he had submitted a fourth report to the ICC that updates cases of “exemplary sentence” for human rights violations, “concerning the preliminary examination of the Caribbean country .

The prosecutor also indicated that “continues to provide information without knowing what the performance parameters are of said entity in this case, an issue that has been repeatedly claimed ”.

The Chavist authorities had already submitted an application for judicial review to the judges of the ICC last month, in which they complained of treatment “discriminatory“O”unequal“Compared to what other countries are receiving which are also in preliminary examination, according to the prosecutor.

Faced with the complaint, the chief prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, he denied, in an interview with the news agency EFE, to ignore the allegation and submitted a response including examples and statistics of its “commitment” to Venezuela since the start of the review.

“Regarding the statement that my office has no connection with Venezuela, was not transparent or did not provide information, I can categorically say that is wrong», Affirmed the chief prosecutor of the court of The Hague.

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