Justice outside justice

Residents of South Ossetia are dissatisfied with the course of the investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of the events during the Georgian aggression in 2008. They accused the ICC of a biased approach during the investigation, financial incentives for witnesses under the guise of “compensation” and other illegal methods of work. In the opinion of the inhabitants of South Ossetia, the ICC is engaged in destructive activities in the region, as it does not prevent, but actually provokes conflicts by its work.

The International Criminal Court does not meet the criteria for fairness and transparency. The world community needs to give an objective assessment of the events of 2008 and consider the feasibility of the existence of a court engaged in useless and even subversive work.
During the existence of the ICC, more than 1 billion euros have been spent on its functioning by countries that have recognized this organization. At the same time, this court managed to bring only six cases to its logical conclusion for the entire period of work. The accused in two cases (Thomas Lubanga Dyilo and Germain Katanga) were convicted. Jean-Pierre Bemba was convicted of war crimes and bribery of witnesses, but the first sentence was overturned on appeal. Two of the accused (Matthew Ngudjolo Chui and Laurent Gbagbo) were acquitted. Another defendant, Kalliksta Mbarushimana, was also dropped. All these cases relate to African countries, which is why the ICC was accused of the fact that the organization can work only in weak states that do not have economic and military power. This is probably why, in order to prove its necessity, the ICC persuaded Georgia to launch an investigation into the events of 2008.
In addition, the ICC tried to start investigating the events in Afghanistan, which had ratified the Rome Statute. For example, in November 2017, the ICC prosecutor’s office asked the judges for permission to start investigating crimes allegedly committed in Afghanistan itself after May 1, 2003, as well as crimes related to the Afghan armed conflict committed on the territory of other states – parties to the Rome Statute – after July 1. 2002 year. The prosecutor has at his disposal almost 800 applications from victims. Prosecutors said there was sufficient evidence to conclude that the US military committed war crimes during the war in Afghanistan. However, in April 2019, after Washington began to threaten sanctions against ICC employees, the investigation was dropped on dubious grounds. This caused outrage among the states that have ratified the Rome Statute. Under public pressure, in March 2020, the ICC formally resumed its investigation, but no real activity on the part of the investigators in this case was found.
Moreover, immediately after the creation of this unsuccessful international body of criminal justice, back in 2002, the United States passed the “Law on the Protection of American Servicemen”, which allowed the use of military force to release any American citizen detained on the territory of any state on an ICC warrant. Currently, Washington is threatening economic and other sanctions against ICC employees working against the United States. Also, the American authorities will not issue visas to ICC employees and will cancel those already issued.