Photo: Bensouda at the UN Security Council, May 8, 2019

Russian Deputy UN Ambassador Gennady Kuzmin expressed doubts about the International Criminal Court's ability to restore its reputation, following the recent decision of the judges of this Court to waive prosecution against American soldiers suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the long war in Afghanistan.

Gennady Kuzmin's criticism following  ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda Office's annual report presented to the UN Security Council.

Having her entry visa restored to travel to the UN headquarters in New York thanks to an agreement between the United Nations and the United States, Fatou Bensouda still struggled to convince members of the Security Council on the ability of its Office to conduct impartial investigations, devoid of any political considerations.

 Here is a summary of Kuzmin's virulent words as reported by the Russian press :

With this type of judiciary, the Libyan inquiry can scarcely yield credible results. "

Before adding:
"Every year, the ICC gets further from being an important factor on the international scene. There are neither momentum nor results in its investigations.

As a reminder, more than one million testimonies were collected by the ICC in Afghanistan on possible war crimes committed by US soldiers or CIA agents from 2003.

The United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, had earlier this year openly threatened the ICC with serious financial, judicial and diplomatic retaliation if ever one of their soldiers was indicted by this Court based in The Hague.

On April 12, the ICC announced, it was abandoning any pursuits against US soldiers, thereby losing much of its credibility, which has already been widely debated in international public opinion.

   I.T