THE HAGUE (Reuters) -The prosecutor of the Worldwide Prison Court docket (ICC) mentioned on Wednesday he would search an arrest warrant for Myanmar’s army chief Min Aung Hlaing for crimes towards humanity over the alleged persecution of the Rohingya, a primarily Muslim minority.
A panel of three judges will now resolve in the event that they agree there are “reasonable grounds” to consider basic Min Aung Hlaing bears legal accountability for the deportation and persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
There is no such thing as a set timeframe for his or her choice nevertheless it typically takes round three months to rule on issuing an arrest warrant.
A spokesperson for Myanmar’s ruling junta didn’t reply calls in search of remark from the army authorities instantly after the announcement.
The prosecutor’s workplace mentioned in an announcement that it was in search of the warrant after in depth, unbiased and neutral investigations. Extra functions for arrest warrants will comply with, it mentioned.
Greater than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh throughout the marketing campaign which U.N. investigators mentioned was carried out with “genocidal intent”.
Buddhist majority Myanmar denies accusations of genocide and has all the time maintained it doesn’t goal civilians, saying it carried out army operations towards terrorists.
Myanmar shouldn’t be a member of the treaty-based ICC, however in 2018 and 2019 rulings judges mentioned the court docket had jurisdiction over alleged cross-border crimes that partially happened in neighbouring ICC member Bangladesh, and mentioned prosecutors might open a proper investigation.
“This is the first application for an arrest warrant against a high-level Myanmar government official that my Office is filing. More will follow,” the ICC prosecutor’s assertion mentioned.
