The administration of Nicolás Maduro includes in its proposal to the Chamber of Preliminary Questions I, which handles the case known as Venezuela I, that the participation of the States that filed the complaint before the International Criminal Court is also limited. For Provea, Maduro’s strategy “seeks to paralyze the investigative powers of the ICC prosecutor for as long as possible”
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) published on November 14 a communication from the administration of Nicolás Maduro, which seeks to prevent the direct participation of the victims and the five States that referred the case to the ICC during the stage investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed in the country, at least since 2017.
In a response from the Maduro administration to prosecutor Karim Khan’s request to resume the investigation, dated November 10, the Venezuelan state opposes the direct participation of victims and their representatives in the investigation and calls for it to be limited to summaries prepared by the Public Office for the Defense of Victims of the ICC.
In addition, the Venezuelan State requests that these reports correspond only to the cases presented by the ICC Prosecutor’s Office, therefore new information (evidence) on other cases that could expand the file and that Karim Khan considers would be excluded. It also asks the judges of the Preliminary Questions Chamber (SCP) not to allow the participation in this procedure of Canada, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay and Peru, the States parties that referred the situation.
The Maduro administration also opposes prosecutor Karim Khan’s request that judges Péter Kovács, who presides over the Chamber, Reine Alapini-Gansou and Socorro Flores Liera adopt an expedited procedure to authorize the resumption of the investigation into crimes against humanity. In addition, they request longer terms to respond to each of the requests and to be able to do so before any document introduced by any source.
*Read also: Progress of the investigation into Venezuela in the ICC depends, immediately, on three judges
For the Venezuelan Education Program – Action on Human Rights (Provide)this is a “delaying strategy that seeks to keep the investigative powers of the ICC prosecutor paralyzed for as long as possible.”
This delaying strategy seeks to keep the investigative powers of the ICC Prosecutor paralyzed for as long as possible. It is up to the Judges of the Preliminary Questions Chamber to decide on these requests.https://t.co/Z1Ek2X12kd
?7/8— PROVE (@_Provea) November 16, 2022
In any case, Provea pointed out on his Twitter account, it is up to the judges of the Preliminary Questions Chamber to decide on these requests.
“This communication ratifies the contempt of the Venezuelan authorities for the victims and their demands for justice, as well as their unwillingness to genuinely comply with the principle of complementarity,” the NGO stated.
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