“The European Union respects the independence of the International Criminal Court” and is awaiting a decision on the possible issuance of arrest warrants, Peter Stano, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said in Brussels on Tuesday.
“It is too early to assess the impact of this decision on contacts between the European Union and the Israeli Prime Minister,” said the spokesman, who also reiterated the position expressed on Monday by High Commissioner Joseph Borrell that all states that have ratified the Convention, the Statutes of the International criminal court is obliged to respect its decisions.
Stano said that in foreign policy, each state makes its own decisions and that the European Union speaks only with one voice, pointing out that the last time 27 states spoke about the decisions of the International Criminal Court was at the European Council in June 2023, said the support of the Hague court in “discharging its primary function of dispensing justice to victims in all situations within its jurisdiction.”
France, Spain and Belgium are among the countries that, while recognizing the independence of the Hague tribunal, welcomed the decision to investigate crimes in Palestine and did not criticize the prosecutor’s decision.
The governments of Austria and the Czech Republic, without challenging the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, which Israel does not recognize like the United States, Russia, China, India or Iran, expressed a position similar to that of Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani: who considered it “unacceptable to equate a government legally elected by the people democratically, to a terrorist organization.”
Most member states, including Portugal, have not taken an official position.
The 27 EU states are among the 124 countries that have ratified the Statutes of the International Criminal Court, which obliges them to comply with its decisions, namely the execution of arrest warrants.
International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan on Monday asked for arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders, Neta Sinwar, Mohammed al-Masri and Ismail Haniyeh, for war crimes and crimes against humanity “from at least October 7, 2023.”
The British judge also demanded that arrest warrants be issued for Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity “from at least October 8, 2023.”
The investigation, launched following the October 7 Hamas attack, is based on the decision of the International Criminal Court of February 5, 2021, recognizing “its criminal jurisdiction over the situation in the State of Palestine and that the territorial scope of this jurisdiction covers the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” – the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
At least three of the six judges of the “Pre-Trial Section” of the Hague Court, which conducts exclusively in-person trials of crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity, are responsible for deciding on applications for warrants. , war crimes and crimes of aggression committed since July 1, 2002, the official date of its creation.
The latest arrest warrants issued in 12 ongoing and 5 completed investigations by the International Criminal Court concern the situation in Ukraine.
The case, opened in March 2022, relates to alleged crimes committed since November 21, 2013, and has led to the issuance of arrest warrants for President Vladimir Putin and three senior Russian officials: Maria Alekseevna Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Lieutenant General. Sergei Ivanovich Kobylash and Admiral Viktor Nikolaevich Sokolov.
Author: SATURDAY
Source: CM Jornal
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