A day after closed-door hearing about its jurisdiction to try a case on alleged deportation of Rohingya, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has sent a request to Myanmar to know its view about the subject.
The ICC pre-trial chamber sent the request to Myanmar Thursday (Jun 21) and requested it to give its written reply publicly or confidentially by Jul 27.
Earlier on Wednesday, it held a closed-door hearing where Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda presented her case about the ICC jurisdiction to try the perpetrators who are behind the deportation of Rohingyas from Myanmar.
The ICC request stipulates: “The Prosecutor alleges that since August 2017 more than 670,000 members of the Rohingya people, lawfully present in Myanmar, have been intentionally deported into Bangladesh. Considering that the crime of deportation is alleged to have commenced on the territory of Myanmar, the Chamber deems it appropriate to seek observations from the competent authorities of Myanmar on the Prosecutor’s Request.”
The pre-trial Chamber invites Myanmar to submit written observations, either publicly or confidentially, on the possibility of the Court’s exercise of territorial jurisdiction over the alleged deportation of members of the Rohingya people from Myanmar into Bangladesh and the circumstances surrounding the crossing of the border by members of the Rohingya people from Myanmar into Bangladesh.
After Myanmar submission, the prosecutor will have 10 days to reply to the observation.
On Apr 9, ICC prosecutor Bensouda submitted a petition before the ICC to seek its ruling whether it had territorial jurisdiction over the alleged deportation of Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh.
The ICC formed a pre-trial chamber comprised of three judges on Apr 11.
On May 7, it sent a request to know the view of Bangladesh over its jurisdiction to try perpetrators in Myanmar, which is not a state party to the Rome Statute and the government gave its confidential submission on Jun 11.
More than one million Rohingyas fled Rakhine, their motherland, due to atrocities committed by Myanmar army.
Since Aug 25 last year, there are over 30,000 pregnant ladies, about 40,000 orphans and about 9,000 children, whose both parents were missing, fled to Bangladesh.