The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court will on 2 September deliver its judgment on an appeal brought by the Prosecutor against the Union of Comoros.
The Court is set to decide on this matter weeks after United States of America revoke Prosecutor Fatou Bon Bensouda’s visa.
A press release from the ICC said, “On 14 May 2013, a referral was received by the Office of the Prosecutor from the authorities of the Union of the Comoros, a State Party to the Rome Statute, in relation to an attack on 31 May 2010 by the Israeli Defence Forces on the Humanitarian Aid Flotilla bound for the Gaza strip.”
It added that on 6 November 2014, the Office of the Prosecutor announced it was closing its preliminary examination of the situation referred by the Union of the Comoros because, in the Prosecutor’s view, the potential case(s) likely arising from an investigation into this incident would not be of “sufficient gravity” to justify further action by the ICC.
On 16th July 2015, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the ICC, by majority, granted the request of the Union of Comoros to review the decision of the ICC Prosecutor not to investigate the attack and requested the Prosecutor to reconsider her decision. The Prosecutor filed her decision on 29 November 2017 reaffirming her previous decision of 6 November 2014 to close this preliminary examination.
On 15 November 2018, Pre-Trial Chamber I decided to grant the Union of Comoros’s further application for judicial review. The Chamber ordered the Prosecutor to reconsider its 6 November 2014 Decision in light of the specific directions of the 16 July 2015 Decision. The Prosecutor appealed this decision.
