Cuno Tarfusser | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 2nd Vice-President of the International Criminal Court | |
| In office 2012–2015 | |
| Preceded by | Hans-Peter Kaul |
| Succeeded by | Kuniko Ozaki |
| Judge of International Criminal Court | |
| In office 11 March 2009 –10 March 2018 | |
| Preceded by | Mauro Politi |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 11 August 1954 Merano,South Tyrol,Italy |
| Alma mater | |
| Profession | Prosecutor |
Cuno Jakob Tarfusser (born 11 August 1954) was an Italian judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC). [1]
Tarfusser studied at the University of Innsbruck and the University of Padova. Prior to his appointment to the ICC, he had an extensive legal career in Italy as a prosecutor, including holding the office of Chief Public Prosecutor.
Tarfusser took office at the ICC on 11 March 2009 [2] He was assigned to Pre-Trial Chamber II at the International Criminal Court.
Together with judges Hans-Peter Kaul and Ekaterina Trendafilova, Tarfusser made the landmark decision that saw Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, his Deputy William Ruto, former Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura and journalist Joshua Sang committed to trial in January 2012. [3]
In October 2013, Tarfusser issued an arrest warrant for Kenyan journalist Walter Barasa on suspicion of attempting to bribe a potential witness in the International Criminal Court investigation in Kenya against Ruto; this was the first time the court sought to prosecute someone over interfering with its legal process. [4]
In February 2015, Tarfusser and Trendafilova dissented with their colleagues of the Pre-Trial Chamber II in their decision to uphold the acquittal of militia leader Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui of commanding fighters who destroyed the village of Bogoro in eastern Congo in 2003, raping and hacking to death some 200 people including children. The original 2012 judgment had been only the second verdict in the court's history and the first time it had cleared a suspect. Both Tarfusser and Trendafilova argued that the appeals chamber should have ordered a retrial because of errors by the trial panel, saying that "vital evidence was disregarded." [5]
In March 2015, Tarfusser unsuccessfully ran for the office of President of the International Criminal Court; he ended up losing to Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi by one vote. [6]
Also in March 2015, the Pre-Trial Chamber designated Tarfusser to replace Trendiflova in proceeding with the trial of Dominic Ongwen as a single judge. As presiding judge of the Pre Trial Chamber II, Tarfusser was also put in charge of the case against LRA leaders Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti and Okot Odhiambo. [7] Soon after, he issued the order to terminate proceedings against Odhiambo following the release of a forensic report confirming that Odhiambo was killed in the Central African Republic. [8]
In a 2015 majority decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber I, Tarfusser joined his fellow judge Joyce Aluoch – with Judge Péter Kovács dissenting – in requesting ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to reconsider her decision not to investigate the Gaza flotilla raid of 31 May 2010. [9]
After September 2015, Tarfusser served as presiding judge in the case of Ahmad al-Faqi, the first individual to face charges of the war crime of damaging mankind's cultural heritage at the court. [10]
The International Criminal Court is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. The ICC is distinct from the International Court of Justice, an organ of the United Nations that hears disputes between states.
The International Criminal Court has opened investigations in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Darfur in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Libya, Uganda, Bangladesh/Myanmar, Palestine, the Philippines, and Venezuela. Additionally, the Office of the Prosecutor conducted preliminary examinations in situations in Bolivia, Colombia, Guinea, Iraq / the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Georgia, Honduras, South Korea, Ukraine and Venezuela. Preliminary investigations were closed in Gabon; Honduras; registered vessels of Comoros, Greece, and Cambodia; South Korea; and Colombia on events since 1 July 2002.
Wilfred Ngunjiri Nderitu is a former chair of the Governing Council of the Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).
Okot Odhiambo was a senior leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan militant group which operates from Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Odhiambo was one of five people for whom the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued its first ever arrest warrants in 2005, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. In 2009, he announced his intention to defect from the LRA and return to Uganda if the government would agree not to surrender him to the ICC.
Dominic Ongwen is a Ugandan former child soldier and former commander of one of the brigades of the Ugandan guerrilla group Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
The states parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court are those sovereign states that have ratified, or have otherwise become party to, the Rome Statute. The Rome Statute is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court, an international court that has jurisdiction over certain international crimes, including genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes that are committed by nationals of states parties or within the territory of states parties. States parties are legally obligated to co-operate with the Court when it requires, such as in arresting and transferring indicted persons or providing access to evidence and witnesses. States parties are entitled to participate and vote in proceedings of the Assembly of States Parties, which is the Court's governing body. Such proceedings include the election of such officials as judges and the Prosecutor, the approval of the Court's budget, and the adoption of amendments to the Rome Statute.
The eighteen judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) are elected for nine-year terms by the member-countries of the court. Candidates must be nationals of those countries and they must "possess the qualifications required in their respective States for appointment to the highest judicial offices".
Christine, Baroness Van den Wyngaert is a Belgian jurist and judge. She served as international and comparative criminal law expert from 2009 to 2018 as a judge on the International Criminal Court. She served in the Trial Division Chamber. On 8 July 2013, Van den Wyngaert was ennobled by King Albert II of Belgium as a baroness for her services as a judge. From 2003 to 2005 she was a Judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and from 2000 to 2002 an ad hoc judge on the International Court of Justice.
Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui is a colonel in the Congolese army and a former senior commander of the National Integrationist Front (FNI) and the Patriotic Resistance Force in Ituri (FRPI).
The International Criminal Court investigation in Kenya or the situation in the Republic of Kenya was an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into the responsibility for the 2007–2008 post-election violence in Kenya. The 2007–2008 crisis followed the presidential election that was held on 27 December 2007. The Electoral Commission of Kenya officially declared that the incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was re-elected however supporters of the opposition candidate Raila Odinga accused the government of electoral fraud and rejected the results. A series of protests and demonstrations followed, and fighting—mainly along tribal lines—led to an estimated 1,200 deaths and more than 500,000 people becoming internally displaced.
Joshua Arap Sang, born in Kitale, Trans-Nzoia District, Kenya, is the current head of Radio Emoo FM and acting head of radio stations at Mediamax Ltd. in Nairobi, Kenya.
Ekaterina Trendafilova is a Bulgarian lawyer and judge with international and domestic experience. She is currently serving as the first President of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers – a position to which she was appointed in December 2016 for a four-year term and took her office on 12 January 2017.
Joyce Aluoch is a Kenyan lawyer who served as Judge of the International Criminal Court from 2009 until 2018. She is a former judge of the High Court of Kenya. In addition to her career as a judge, she was the First Chairperson of the Committee of African Union Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Vice-Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child from 2003 to 2009. She has also served as the inaugural head of the family division of the Kenyan High Court and a member of the Court of Appeal.
The International Criminal Court investigation in Uganda or the situation in Uganda is an ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into the Lord's Resistance Army insurgency which has been taking place in northern Uganda and neighbouring regions since 1987. The Lord's Resistance Army is a Christian-based group led by Joseph Kony that is accused of numerous human rights violations and war crimes including massacres, the abduction of civilians, the use of child soldiers, sexual enslavement, torture, and pillaging. After the government of Uganda referred the matter to the ICC in December 2003, warrants of arrest were issued in 2005 for Joseph Kony, Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odhiambo, Dominic Ongwen, and Vincent Otti, who became the first people to be indicted by the Court.
The International Criminal Court investigation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is an ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into crimes committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during the Second Congo War and its aftermath, including the Ituri and Kivu conflicts. The war started in 1998 and despite a peace agreement between combatants in 2003, conflict continued in the eastern parts of the country for several years. In April 2004 the government of the DRC formally referred the situation in the Congo to the International Criminal Court, and in June 2004, prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, formally opened an investigation. To date, arrest warrants have been issued for:
Silvia Alejandra Fernández de Gurmendi is an Argentine lawyer, diplomat and judge. She has been a judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 20 January 2010 and was the first woman President of the ICC from March 2015 to March 2018. She was elected to the presidency for a three-year term and served until March 2018. In 2020 she was elected to serve as President of the Assembly of States Parties to Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court for the twentieth to twenty-second sessions (2021-2023).
Chile Eboe-Osuji is a Nigerian jurist. He is the International Jurist at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law and a Special Advisor to the President's Office at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza is a Peruvian jurist and judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands. Ibañez Carranza is the first Peruvian judge at the ICC. Before being elected as a judge at the ICC, she was a prosecutor and professor in Peru.
Paul Gicheru Njoroge was a Kenyan lawyer and qualified advocate of the High Court of Kenya who was accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of bribing and intimidating witnesses in a case against the now Kenyan President William Ruto, and journalist Joshua Sang that was dismissed in 2016. He faced charges of bribery and corruptly inducing witnesses to interfere with justice. He died while awaiting a decision in the case.
