WHO WOULD DOUBT THAT

Last week something happened that should have happened a long time ago. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, demanded an arrest warrant for Muammar Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and relative and part-time head of the Libyan security service Abdullah al-Senussi. According to Moreno-Ocampo, he has “direct evidence” linking the leader of the Libyan revolution and his relatives to crimes against humanity and war crimes.

It must be said that this message did not become news. Two weeks ago, information appeared in the newspapers that the International Criminal Court in The Hague wants Gaddafi, along with his closest relatives and accomplices, to be in the dock. Moreover, the day before Moreno-Ocampo formally requested an arrest warrant, all newspapers reported when this would happen and what exactly the prosecutor would say.

And even more so, no one was surprised by the speed with which the preliminary investigation was carried out. Typically, the court takes more than a year to prepare for preliminary proceedings, but in this case the investigation lasted less than a month. During this time, according to Moreno-Ocampo, 170 witnesses from 11 countries were questioned, including from Libya itself.

Libya has not ratified the Treaty of Rome, under which the International Criminal Court was created and operates. Therefore, its decisions are not binding on the Libyan authorities; in addition, if Gaddafi is arrested on the territory of a third country, his lawyers may well protest the arrest itself, since the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court extends only to those countries that have ratified the Treaty of Rome and accept the jurisdiction of the court.

Gaddafi is being put on trial