Positive news from the ICC front these week.
In the Kenya situation, the ICC issued summonses for the six suspects on Tuesday in its investigation into the deadly violence that hit the east African country following disputed 2007 presidential elections. The Prominent Kenyans summoned by the ICC have agreed to attend the April 7th hearing in the Hague.
In the Darfur Situation, the Pre-trial chamber confirmed on Tuesday 8 March 2011 that it will try Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus, two rebel leaders from Sudan's Darfur region, for their alleged involvement in the killing of 12 African Union peacekeepers in an attack on the AU's Haskanita camp in September 2007.
I have the impression that voluntary appearances are becoming the new trend at the ICC. And above all, I aks myself the question what the underlying motivation is of the defendants to appear voluntarily before the ICC. Before national criminal courts and international criminal courts it's very rare that persons suspected of such serious crimes appear voluntarily.
Do suspects in the Darfur and Kenya situations genuinely believe that they're innocent? Maybe also because they're not familiar with the international forms of responsibility like command responsibility and joint criminal enteprise. Under these forms, suspects can be convicted when they did not physically commit the crime, but they also can be held responsible 'just' by failing to prevent atrocities by their subordinates (CR) or for crimes committed in furtherance of a common purpose, or crimes that are a foreseeable result of undertaking a common purpose (JCE).
Or is it a more pragmatical choice? By engaging in the judicial process, they show that they have faith in justice and in that way they avoid that they become the next 'outlaws' of the international community after Mladic, Kony and Al-Bashir...
Some enlightening thoughts on this topic are much appreciated.
