International Criminal Court (ICC) joins the Crusade

[Jalili]

Friday, July 11, 2008


International Criminal Court (ICC) joins the Crusade
4:41 PM ET


Ali Khan [Washburn University School of Law]: "The International Criminal Court (ICC) joins the crusade to defame Islam, demonize internal conflicts in Muslim nations, and prosecute Muslim leaders for crimes against humanity, rape, genocide, and other international crimes. The Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, holds evidence "on crimes committed in the whole of Darfur over the last five years." Ocampo will be seeking the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes committed in Darfur.

The ICC is a good idea. We need a world court to hold international criminals accountable. No leader should be able to get away with heinous international crimes. The weakening of personal sovereign immunity is also a welcome legal development in that no leader, army general, senator, representative, or even judge is immune from criminal liability if he or she commits crimes or provides material assistance in the commission of crimes.

In practice, however, the ICC is a Western instrumentality that ignores the grave crimes of Western leaders and generals. The ICC has so far shown no interest in prosecuting President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, and State Secretary Colin Powell for the crimes they planned, organized, incited, and committed with the help of lethal weapons in Afghanistan and Iraq. These leaders have destroyed Iraq, a Muslim country, and killed its leader, Saddam Hussein, without a fair trial. The NATO genocide in Afghanistan continues as world leaders sit in high galleries to watch the ghoulish killings of the “Taliban and terrorists.”

Ocampo is an incompetent, unethical, and perhaps a racist prosecutor who does not deserve to lead the Prosecutorial office of the ICC. He has already botched up the prosecution of a Congolese warlord, Thomas Lubanga, by wrongly withholding evidence that could have helped the defense.

The prosecution of President Omar for the Darfur conflict comes after years of distortions and misreporting in the Western media. The Western media singles out Muslim leaders and Muslim nations for explaining the ills of the world. Syria is listed as a terrorist state, Pakistan is blamed for trouble in Afghanistan, the Iranian President has been turned into an imminent murderer, and President Omar is soon to be prosecuted as a war criminal. Militias that resist Western occupation in their own countries are labeled as terrorists and jihadis.

While hardened criminals sit out in shameless liberty, the politically-inspired prosecution of President Omar is, at its best, selective enforcement of international criminal law; and, at its worst, it is one more crusade against the Muslim world."

Opinions expressed in JURIST's Hotline are the sole responsibility of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of JURIST's editors, staff, or the University of Pittsburgh.


JURIST - Hotline: International Criminal Court (ICC) joins the Crusade