In an interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm, Luis Moreno Ocampo, the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC), said the court cannot question Egyptian officials over alleged human rights violations because Egypt is not a signatory to the ICC. If Egypt were to sign, officials could be held accountable for the violations committed.
Human rights activists entertained the possibility of involving the ICC in investigations into the killing of protestors during Egypt's 25 January Revolution, and the terror created by Hosni Mubarak's now toppled regime when it deliberately withdrew policemen from the streets and forced inmates to escape prisons.
Ocampo said, meanwhile, that his office has already launched preliminary investigations into the crimes of Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi's regime. These include firing live bullets at protesters, using excessive force against them, intimidating unarmed civilians and systematically repressing the opposition.
He said the ICC is in the process of issuing an arrest warrant for Qadhafi and ruled out the possibility that any permanent members of the United Nations Security Council would veto the investigations. While China and Russia stood against UN resolution 1973, which imposed a no-fly zone on Libya, both countries approved resolution 1970, which referred the situation in Libya to the ICC.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
