The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court responded to the government of Nicolás Maduro and ensures that the Venezuelan State does not have the legal structure to judge alleged crimes against humanity
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) responded to the last document introduced by the Venezuelan Government, on February 28, to dismiss the investigation for alleged crimes against humanity.
In this sense, the ICC prosecutor’s office points out that the Venezuelan State does not offer circumstantial evidence that allows it to admit that alleged crimes against humanity are being investigated, tried and actually punished.
Prosecutor Karim Khan bases his statement on the fact that the Venezuelan State does not have the legal structure to judge alleged crimes against humanity, nor does it investigate the chain of command (only limited to perpetrators) and does not judge crimes based on persecution, torture, arbitrary deprivation of liberty, rape or sexual abuse, but the accusations are changed or “diluted”.
It also warns that these conclusions were made without prejudice to other crimes that may be determined at a later stage.
In its investigation, the ICC prosecutor’s office states that “from at least April 2017 onwards, thousands of opponents were allegedly persecuted for political reasons, arrested and detained without an adequate legal basis; hundreds were allegedly tortured; and more than 100 were allegedly subjected to forms of sexual violence including rape.”
Also read: CPI received more than 2,000 opinions from Venezuelan victims for crimes against humanity
For the Prosecutor’s Office, these are not isolated issues, and the investigation also concluded that “the multiple commission of these acts constituted an attack against the civilian population in accordance with a State policy (…) systematic and that the policy of attacking this part of the population was, at a minimum, encouraged or approved by the Government of Venezuela and carried out mainly by members of specific state security forces with the possible assistance of pro-government groups or individuals”.
The report adds that the Prosecutor’s Office concluded that the possible cases identified “are serious enough to justify the adoption of new measures by the Court, in light of quantitative and qualitative considerations, including scale, nature, the form of commission and the repercussions of the crimes”.
In the brief, prosecutor Karim Khan recalls that “reasonable grounds” were found to believe that hundreds of victims had been subjected “to a wide range of criminal acts during prolonged periods of detention, including torture, rape and/or sexual violence.”
It explained that “the victims were allegedly subjected to acts of violence, including beatings, suffocation, near drowning, and electric shocks that resulted in serious damage to their mental and physical well-being.”
“For the reasons stated, the Prosecutor’s Office respectfully reiterates its request that the Preliminary Questions Chamber order the resumption of the investigation into the Situation of Venezuela,” the Prosecutor’s Office concludes in its presentation before the ICC.
ICC Prosecutor’s Office by As it is on Scribd
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