The International Criminal Court (ICC) authorized prosecutor Karim Khan on Tuesday to resume his investigation into the alleged commission of crimes against humanity in Venezuela. The decision was based on the assessment that the "domestic criminal proceedings" in Caracas do not sufficiently reflect the scope of the case and are marked by "unexplained periods of inactivity."
The Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC noted that the focus of internal investigations "appears to generally be on direct perpetrators and/or lower-ranking individuals" and considered that "limited investigative measures have been taken and, in many cases, there appear to be periods of unexplained investigative inactivity."
While recognizing that Venezuela has taken "some investigative measures," the ICC considers that "its domestic criminal proceedings do not sufficiently reflect the scope of the overall investigation," particularly regarding crimes of persecution and sexual nature.
"The internal investigations appear not to sufficiently address the forms of criminality that the Prosecutor seeks to investigate, specifically referring to the discriminatory intent underlying the alleged crime of persecution and the apparently inadequate investigation of crimes of a sexual nature," stated the Chamber.
However, the judges emphasized that this conclusion "does not preclude" Caracas from providing future evidence that establishes "inadmissibility on the basis of complementarity," meaning that it demonstrates that the Venezuelan justice system is already investigating all alleged crimes against humanity reported by the victims and that the ICC prosecutor's investigation is unnecessary.
In addition to the prosecutor's arguments to resume the investigation and the Venezuelan authorities' objections to the reopening of the case, the judges have taken into account approximately 1,875 submissions of opinions and concerns transmitted through the Victims' Participation and Reparations Section.
Venezuela ratified the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC, in the year 2000, and the Office of the Prosecutor of the Court received a referral in September 2018 from Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, and Peru, alleging the commission of crimes against humanity in Venezuela since February 12, 2014.
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